means an extended, often paid, break from one's regular job — especially in academia — taken for rest, study, travel, or research.

from From the Latin 'sabbaticus,' itself from the Greek 'sabbatikos,' all tracing back to the Hebrew 'shabbat,' the day of rest — the same root that gives us 'Sabbath.' The deepest sense is simply 'to cease, to stop.' In ancient Jewish law there was even a 'sabbatical year' (shmita), every seventh year, when fields were left fallow to rest. The academic meaning — a scholar's leave, traditionally every seventh year — borrows directly from that idea: the land lies still so it can bear again, and so, in theory, do you.