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Biweekly means every two weeks. Semiweekly means twice a week. (Fortnightly doesn't mean anything outside of the Commonwealth.) Please keep (politely) correc
by mtVessel 12y ago
Biweekly means every two weeks. Semiweekly means twice a week. (Fortnightly doesn't mean anything outside of the Commonwealth.)
Please keep (politely) correcting people. It's only us against the hordes!
- jacalata 12y ago> Biweekly means every two weeks. Since when, exactly? http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/18553?rskey=7qC25f&result=2#eid116781405 http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/18553?rskey=7qC25f&result=2#ei...
- thedufer 12y agoWhile it has meant both every two weeks and twice a week for a long time, this is an interesting case where convincing people otherwise would pretty clearly improve our language. Even the page you linked to implies this: > The ambiguous usage is confusing, and might be avoided by the use of semi-
- mtVessel 12y agoHmm. Guess I should have looked it up before posting. Serves me right for not being more bi-curious.
- jejones3141 12y agoOTOH, were it not for bad Latin speakers, we wouldn't have the Romance languages. A John Simon/William Safire of the era is an important source of data on their development--he wrote a list of proper Latin terms and the corresponding words in the bad Latin he was seeing and/or hearing. Dang it, it's not caballus, it's equus!
- mtVessel 12y agoSo you're saying that when I correct someone publicly, I'm not being an insufferable pedant, I'm contemporaneously documenting usage for future linguists! Ooh, I'm gonna get so much mileage out of that one.
- merrua 12y ago> Fortnightly doesn't mean anything outside of the Commonwealth Really? I live and learn. I thought that was commonplace.
- teh_klev 12y agoIn the spirit the correctness and accuracy, which Commonwealth? :)
- mtVessel 12y agoPoint taken. Um...the one(s) where a 'fortnight' is still a thing?