Post
Can we all just agree that “biweekly” means every other week, and “twice-weekly” means twice a week? Or better yet, just get rid of “biweekly” altogether?
May I suggest the word "fortnightly" for all your "14 days & nights" needs?
"Why would you name it after a game? A season in fortnite lasts longer than 14 days anyway, so its still wrong" - Kids today, probably :-P
If that comes with a horse and cape, I'm in.
Oi oi. Get thy filthy forrin 'ands off of us words! Brexit means breaks it!
Fortnightly. It’s a great word. Clears up all the confusion.
Fortynightly is a great companion word. When you need something a bit longer than a month. Say a fast.
I only choose evil every fourthnight.
Yes, It’s a whole as word right there made just for that timescale, just use it ffs
There’s a lot of things America got wrong and not using fortnightly is absolutely one of them. Biweekly is twice a week and I’ll die on this hill
Bimonthly can fuck right off
america learn the word fortnightly challenge: impossible
I remember I was filling out government paperwork as a teenager and was confused; they were very insulting about it. Then I looked up the definition and they can fuck off
I was taught that one is "bi" and the other is "semi" but I have to stop and think about which is which every time
And does "weekly" describe a frequency or a duration? Twice as often or twice the wait?
Definitely frequency. Not sure we have comparable terms for duration in English but I haven't had coffee yet
Then biweekly should be twice as often, which it isn't. This language has bugs in it.
Another vote for fortnightly. (I’m assuming this is a British-ism.)
Makes sense to me! When I was a kid, DC had books that came out every 60 days, and they were "bimonthly."
Already a word for it. Biweekly is twice a week, fortnightly is every two weeks.
That's just fortnightly. It has its own word already that is unambiguous 😭
the bi prefix stresses me out so often, horrible term with zero clarity and it gets even worse as you compare how people use it around the world
Well in Australia we just use the term fortnightly
Could we do what we do with biannual vs biennial and just invent another word for week that only exists for that prefix?
Centennial, millennial, perennial...
Semiweekly means 2x a week
Semi-weekly for twice a week
This is why we have fortnight!
fine, because we already have bimonthly. if something is every two weeks it’s twice a month
Every two weeks is "fortnightly". I would probably interpret any other version to mean twice a week, but agree that getting rid of it entirely is the better option.
Just call it fortnightly and every two months so the rest of us just know what you mean ffs
Have we completely abandoned semi-weekly??
Adopt 'fortnightly' for every two weeks, it's good.
This is what fortnightly is for
Americans get confused by that. Also overmorrow.
That seems like a them problem
It does! I used both extensively at work, whenever the opportunity arises.
kill it. the only "bi"s that have any place in proper society are -sexual, -polar and -den
Don’t get me started on linguistics!
Please do! Few things more entertaining than a good linguistics rant.
Separately, after clicking on your profile: thanks for Lumberjanes. The collections were reliable hit stocking stuffers with my daughter for quite a few years.
Before I opened this thread, I had no idea this was an issue for people.
