- skip - Brewer’s

Year

.

Annus magnus. The Chaldaic astronomers observed that the fixed stars shift their places at about the rate of a degree in seventy-two years, according to which calculation they will perform one revolution in 25,920 years, at the end of which time they will return to their “as you were.” This revolution of the fixed stars is the annus magnus. The Egyptians made it 30,000 years, and the Arabians 49,000. (See Abulhasan’s Meadows of Gold.)

For a year and a day. In law many acts are determined by this period of timee.g. if a person wounded does not die within a year and a day, the offender is not guilty of murder; if an owner does not claim an estray within the same length of time, it belongs to the lord of the manor; a year and a day is given to prosecute appeals, etc.

 

previous entry · index · next entry

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

previous entry · index · next entry

Yacoub ebn Laïth
Yacu-mama [mother of waters]
Yahoo
Yama
Yamuna
Yankee
Yarmouth Bloater
Yarmouth Capons
Yawn
Yea, Yes
Year
Yellow
Yellow-bellies
Yellow Book of France
Yellow-boy (A)
Yellow-boy (A)
Yellow Caps
Yellow Dwarf
Yellow Jack
Yellow Jack (The)
Yellowhammer (The)