The year is the period for one orbit of the Earth around the Sun. And is measured at the Vernal Equinox (the spring-time) which equals 365.2422 mean solar days (a tropical year). If the Synodic months (lunar) are used to count a year, 12 synodic months equal 354.36706 days. This is almost 11 days shorter than the tropical year. And if used it throws the seasons out of sync. Neither tropical (Sun) or synodic (Moon) has a complete number of days. So to compile a calendar that keeps in step with the moon’s phases or with the Sun’s seasons it is necessary to insert days into the calendar which is called "Intercalations".

Sidereal time ( Star Time) - Whenever the Earth has completed 366.2422 rotations with reference to the Stars, one year has past. When the Earth has completed 365.2422 rotations with reference to the Sun, one year has past. Mathematical tables are used to derive mean solar time from mean sidereal time. Neither mean solar nor mean sidereal time is precisely accurate, because the motion of the earth on its axis is not regular.

Ephemeris time is used by astronomers for the greatest degree of accuracy. Ephemeris are tables giving the computed positions of celestial bodies for every day of a given period. It is an astronomical almanac containing positional tables. The base position is the vernal equinox. Through the use of mathematical tables, Ephemeris time is converted into mean solar time.

The mean tropical year in the year 2000 is 365.2421896698 days. This is decreacing by .00000615 days per century.

A simple calculation shows that in 6,000,000,000 years time the earth will take less than 1 day to revolve around the sun! Question: What happens then?

1 year is
12 months is
52 weeks is
365 days is
8760 hours is
525600 minutes is
31536000 seconds.
31536000000 milliseconds.
Hope that clears it up.

KANJI: NEN (year)

ASCII Art Representation:

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Character Etymology:

A stylized derivative of the original ideograph which showed a growing rice plant with a bending person about to cut the plant down. This portrays the annual harvest, which symbolizes the cycle of a year.

A Listing of All On-Yomi and Kun-Yomi Readings:

on-yomi: NEN
kun-yomi: toshi

Nanori Readings:

Nanori: ne

English Definitions:

1. NEN: year; term of service.
2. toshi: year; age; time of life.

Character Index Numbers:

New Nelson: 1593
Henshall: 64

Unicode Encoded Version:

年

Unicode Encoded Compound Examples:

来年 (rainen): next year.
五年生 (gonensai): fifth grader.
年寄 (toshiyori): an old person.
年中 (nenjuu): throughout the year.
年金 (nenkin): annuity, pension.

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YEAR

yer (shanah, Aramaic shenah, "a return" (of the sun), like the Greek eniautos; yamim, "days," is also used for "year," and the Greek hemerai, corresponds to it (Joshua 13:1; Luke 17,18); etos, is also employed frequently in the New Testament; for the difference between etos and eniautos, see Grimm-Thayer, under the word):

The Hebrew year was solar, although the month was lunar, the adjustment being made in intercalation.

See ASTRONOMY; TIME.

 

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Copyright Statement
This file is public domain and adopted from the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, written in 1915, and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Hailed for its authoritative explanations of every significant word, person and place it is the standard by which all other biblical encyclopedias are measured.

Year (?), n. [OE. yer, yeer, [yogh]er, AS. ge�xa0;r; akin to OFries. ir, gr, D. jaar, OHG. jar, G. jahr, Icel. ar, Dan. aar, Sw. �x86;r, Goth. jr, Gr. a season of the year, springtime, a part of the day, an hour, a year, Zend yare year. &root;4, 279. Cf. Hour, Yore.]

1.

The time of the apparent revolution of the sun trough the ecliptic; the period occupied by the earth in making its revolution around the sun, called the astronomical year; also, a period more or less nearly agreeing with this, adopted by various nations as a measure of time, and called the civil year; as, the common lunar year of 354 days, still in use among the Mohammedans; the year of 360 days, etc. In common usage, the year consists of 365 days, and every fourth year (called bissextile, or leap year) of 366 days, a day being added to February on that year, on account of the excess above 365 days (see Bissextile).

Of twenty year of age he was, I guess. Chaucer.

⇒ The civil, or legal, year, in England, formerly commenced on the 25th of March. This practice continued throughout the British dominions till the year 1752.

2.

The time in which any planet completes a revolution about the sun; as, the year of Jupiter or of Saturn.

3. pl.

Age, or old age; as, a man in years.

Shak.

Anomalistic year, the time of the earth's revolution from perihelion to perihelion again, which is 365 days, 6 hours, 13 minutes, and 48 seconds. -- A year's mind Eccl., a commemoration of a deceased person, as by a Mass, a year after his death. Cf. A month's mind, under Month. -- Bissextile year. See Bissextile. -- Canicular year. See under Canicular. -- Civil year, the year adopted by any nation for the computation of time. -- Common lunar year, the period of 12 lunar months, or 354 days. -- Common year, each year of 365 days, as distinguished from leap year. -- Embolismic year, ∨ Intercalary lunar year, the period of 13 lunar months, or 384 days. -- Fiscal year Com., the year by which accounts are reckoned, or the year between one annual time of settlement, or balancing of accounts, and another. -- Great year. See Platonic year, under Platonic. -- Gregorian year, Julian year. See under Gregorian, and Julian. -- Leap year. See Leap year, in the Vocabulary. -- Lunar astronomical year, the period of 12 lunar synodical months, or 354 days, 8 hours, 48 minutes, 36 seconds. -- Lunisolar year. See under Lunisolar. -- Periodical year. See Anomalistic year, above. -- Platonic year, Sabbatical year. See under Platonic, and Sabbatical. -- Sidereal year, the time in which the sun, departing from any fixed star, returns to the same. This is 365 days, 6 hours, 9 minutes, and 9.3 seconds. -- Tropical year. See under Tropical. -- Year and a day O. Eng.Law, a time to be allowed for an act or an event, in order that an entire year might be secured beyond all question. Abbott. -- Year of grace, any year of the Christian era; Anno Domini; A. D. or a. d.

 

© Webster 1913.