8 ms·
On thinking about it just now, I assumed (correctly it seems) that fortnight is a contraction of Fo(u)r(teen )night(s).
by richrichardsson 5y ago
On thinking about it just now, I assumed (correctly it seems) that fortnight is a contraction of Fo(u)r(teen )night(s).
- dragontamer 5y agoAmericans were all about shortening words and phrases in the late 1700s / early 1800s. Worse, there was a period of time where Americans would shorten a phrase, then mis-spell it for the lulz. The most famous example is "All Complete" -> "Oll Komplete" -> "OK" -> okay.
- ncmncm 5y agoThose were, in fact, thoroughly English foibles only preserved in the colonies. But the English love to complain about that. Every British tabloid has a regular, very popular column peeving about yet another abomination by the Americans, or the South Africans, or the Australians. Without exception they note what is simply a local fashion lately abandoned locally, but preserved as if in amber elsewhere. The complaints are really about distant people failing to slavishly follow current London trends by abandoning usage London has abandoned. The peculiar popularity of such peeving could be interpreted as wistfulness for a time when London mattered. And, by the way, that derivation of "OK" is suspect. It is just as likely to have been (fashionably) sarcastic commentary on well-established common oral usage. Etymologists are generally obliged to rely on written sources, but word origins routinely predate the first written use by many decades. Slang originating in exclusive universities is vanishingly rare.