February

[Lat. Februarius, from februare, to purify.] The second month of our year, and containing, ordinarily, twenty-eight days, except in leap-year, when it has twenty-nine, an intercalary day being added. It is so called because in that month funeral lustrations were performed at Rome. It was introduced into the calendar by Numa, who gave it the twelfth place; but the decemviri subsequently transferred it to where it now stands.