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Another couple of common words that can cause confusion are “last” and “next” in reference to days of the week. If today is Monday, for example, when are “next

Another couple of common words that can cause confusion are “last” and “next” in reference to days of the week. If today is Monday, for example, when are “next Wednesday,” “next Thursday,” “next Friday,” and “next Saturday”? The same week? Or the following week? What about if today is Sunday or Tuesday? Twenty years ago, when I was working as a dictionary editor, I wrote a note about the problem: https://www.gally.net/leavings/00/0014.html https://www.gally.net/leavings/00/0014.html

synecdoche 3y ago
Would “coming Wednesday“ or just “on Wednesday”, or “on Wednesday in a week” be less ambiguous?
euroderf 3y ago
After noticing this problem at college, I settled on constructions concise and precise, such as: this week Thursday, this coming Thursday, next week Thursday, Thursday after next
jshprentz 3y ago
Jasper Fforde has written a series of humorous novels about a character named Thursday Next. [1, 2] [1] https://www.carnegielibrary.org/staff-picks/thursday-next-series/ https://www.carnegielibrary.org/staff-picks/thursday-next-se... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thursday_Next https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thursday_Next
alanbernstein 3y ago
And a proposed solution: https://oxtweekend.com/ https://oxtweekend.com/
whynotmaybe 3y ago
They kinda found a solution in French, if you want to be sure that it's Wednesday next week, it's "mercredi en huit" literally translated to "Wednesday in eight (days)". So it's the first Wednesday following today + 8 days( included today) Edit : height VS eight when translating huit
- nkurz 3y ago
  I don't speak French, but it seems a lot more likely that "en huit" would translate as "in 8 (days)" rather than "in height (days)". Are you a native speaker and know better, or might this be a mistake?
  - mathieuh 3y ago
    I assume it's a hyper-corrective insertion of an 'h'
  - whynotmaybe 3y ago
    Clearly a mistake!

synecdoche 3y ago

Would “coming Wednesday“ or just “on Wednesday”, or “on Wednesday in a week” be less ambiguous?

euroderf 3y ago

After noticing this problem at college, I settled on constructions concise and precise, such as: this week Thursday, this coming Thursday, next week Thursday, Thursday after next

jshprentz 3y ago

Jasper Fforde has written a series of humorous novels about a character named Thursday Next. [1, 2] [1] https://www.carnegielibrary.org/staff-picks/thursday-next-series/ https://www.carnegielibrary.org/staff-picks/thursday-next-se... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thursday_Next https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thursday_Next

alanbernstein 3y ago

And a proposed solution: https://oxtweekend.com/ https://oxtweekend.com/

whynotmaybe 3y ago

They kinda found a solution in French, if you want to be sure that it's Wednesday next week, it's "mercredi en huit" literally translated to "Wednesday in eight (days)". So it's the first Wednesday following today + 8 days( included today) Edit : height VS eight when translating huit

nkurz 3y ago
I don't speak French, but it seems a lot more likely that "en huit" would translate as "in 8 (days)" rather than "in height (days)". Are you a native speaker and know better, or might this be a mistake?
- mathieuh 3y ago
  I assume it's a hyper-corrective insertion of an 'h'
- whynotmaybe 3y ago
  Clearly a mistake!