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#AtoZchallenge Blogging challenges momentous events

B is for ‘bissextile’

Go on, guess. What does ‘bissextile’ mean?

And what on Earth is this ‘B is for’ business?

Well, this marks Day 2 of my attempt at the ‘A to Z challenge’ – where bloggers write daily, using consecutive letters of the alphabet, for the month of April (with Sundays off for good behaviour). My theme in 2016 was ‘God’s metaphors’. This year, due to a new job and an insanely crazy-busy last three months, I’ve gone with ‘word for the day’. Easy enough. Yesterday’s word was one I have a pet hate for: A was for ‘always’. And today, perhaps a new word for some of you: bissextile.

So. Did you open up a new tab and google it yet?

My Dad’s the one in the family for discovering new words and researching their etymology (I’m just as likely to look up ‘entomology’, which is really rather different…) and yet I don’t know if he’s aware of this particular word. I’ll have to ask him when he returns from New Zealand in a couple of weeks. Funny, really, because the kids and I are house-sitting for him at the moment, courtesy ex-Tropical Cyclone Debbie which is currently wreaking havoc on the Eastern Australian coast. Thus Hubby is at home, powerless and with no running water (from the taps, that is) while I’m checking out ‘B’ words in his dictionary and blogging at his desk.

Hence ‘B is for bissextile’.

And no, even though it has those three letters in the middle of it which would cause any self-respecting school internet blocking program to flag it – no, it’s NOT about sex.

Actually, ‘bissextile’ is an adjective, which refers to the extra day in a leap year.

How cool is that!

(Oh, and by the way, the ‘sex’ bit is from ‘sextus’, or ‘sixth’, because it was the sixth day before the calends of March. And away we go down another tangent…)

So – have fun working *that* particular word into your next conversation! What a pity I didn’t use this theme last year, which *did* just so happen to include a bissextile day…!

See you tomorrow for ‘C’, dear Reader! And until then, stay safe and be blessed!

— KRidwyn