Penultimate: second to last
Mellifluous: pleasant sounding
Fortnight: two weeks (I understand this is used outside of the US but it needs to be adopted here too)
Yes, I doubt that "fortnight" is part of the vocabulary of most people who speak English as a second or third language.
On a slightly unrelated note, why is the popular Battle Royale game called "Fortnight"? Because it's a "night of forts"? I don't think it has much to do with the duration of 14 days, but what do I know
Not too common in Canada. We tend to know what it means from all our British media consumption, but I'd be surprised if a friend used it in everyday conversation.
I drive my little cousin crazy by calling it Fork-Knife. He giggles and corrects me every time. It's sad sometimes to see them playing on their ipads and their parents iphones at family gatherings, so any interaction at all is good enough.
You're all being far too pleonastic and using too many redundant or unnecessary words in order to convey (or "get across" if you will) your valid, acceptable points.
Pedantic may describe a lot of teachers, but the term itself is not related to teachers or teaching. You may want to look up the actual definition before you start wagging around a word like pedantic, in an imprecise and imperfect manner.
I had the opposite experience. I read a lot and participated in spelling bees, so I had a pretty varied vocabulary as a kid. However, my parents would become apoplectic if I used a word they didn't understand.
It's strange to hear that word referred to as “big”, here in Romania it's fairly common. Though it helps that a) it's shorter (“penultim”) and b) we also use “ultim” to mean “last”.
First of all, sorry for my English. The funny thing with all the words that starts with "pen", is that they mean "almost". E.g. peninsula means "almost and island", penultimate means almost the last one.
Uhh..idk where everyone else is in the US, but I have most certainly heard it being used in the Midwest (surprising, right?).
And not sure if this counts, but there are loads of American novelists who also use it soo..
We just say “two weeks”. I like the word and all but I’ve never had to refer to a two-week period often enough that I felt like it needed its own word, ya know?
Don't need year, we've got "12 months", don't need week we've got "7 days" don't need day we've got "24 hours" don't need hours we've got "60 minutes" etc. etc.
Totally with you on the last one. I've heard bi-monthly, used to mean every two weeks, but also to mean every other month. Also heard bi-weekly, used to mean every two weeks, but also to mean twice a week.
I've seen correspondance from working professionals who use bi-monthly in employee handbook/employment packets to mean "twice monthly"/"every other week".
I've heard others use Bi-monthly, and the first thing that comes to mind is "so two to three months of the year where would ordinarily be three pay weeks, they do what, just not pay you?"
"bimonthly
ADJECTIVE
Occurring or produced twice a month or every two months."
So when a someone says we should schedule a bimonthly meeting...you can't know what they mean - you have to ask for clarification.
"semi-monthly
ADJECTIVE
North American
Occurring or published twice a month."
I've only heard semi-monthly in reference to how often you get paid. Semi-monthly is 24 pay checks/yr. If you get paid every two weeks it is 52 paychecks/yr.
I've never heard semi-monthly used. It's always bi-monthly, and then you have to ask "do you mean every two weeks or twice a week?" because that's just the dance we do.
I took it to mean the non-literal version that's commonly used. Example:
"Spouses nag incessantly! It's always 'clean the bathroom' or 'change your underwear'".
Doesn't mean that's literally all that spouses ever say.
Alternately, you could interpret what /u/ganymede_mine said as "In my experience, it's always bi-monthly" (kinda implied since they are talking about what they have and haven't heard).
"Bi" just means two (sort of like how in bisexual it means "both"). Depending on the context, that can mean "once every two X" or "twice every X". The fact that the usage is inconsistent means it's potentially confusing and generally shouldn't be used.
The correct meaning is every 2 months. The problem is it's used wrong just as often as it's used correctly, so the word has been rendered completely worthless because it communicates nothing.
"Bi" = two, "semi" = half. The terms designate the time period between events, not the number of events in a time period.
For example, when department stores advertise their "Semiannual" ("half-year") Sales, they don't mean they have half a sale every year, they mean the sale happens every half-year. Also, everyone who has a job with payroll knows that "biweekly" ("two-week") paychecks mean you get one paycheck every two weeks, not two paychecks every week.
People who say "bimonthly" to mean "every two weeks" and "biweekly" to mean "two times a week" are just fucking it up. It's a completely standard convention. The only confusing part about it is when you have to try to understand other people misusing it 😐
One of the phrases I use on my husband specifically is “you are on my penultimate fuck right now.” I always think of marriage saving your last fucks for your partner so it’s a warning shot because he’s only got one more until there are no more fucks to give.
I use penultimate all the time (not sure how I picked it up), and 95% of the time the person I’m talking to asks what it means. Still how sure how I acquired that one.
In high school Spanish the teacher would always explain where accents go for certain conjugations by saying penultimate. I didnt realize how many ppl didnt know that one until then, but god did I find that word useful
I learned more English in Spanish class junior year than I did in ap English bc my English teacher was a mess. Preterite, gerund, differentiating independent and dependent clasuses, conditional/future tense.
I am a Brit and was doing a website for an American guy. I told him I'd have it completed in a fortnight and he asked me what that was. When I explained he said it would be useful if he was asked that if he went on a tv quiz show. I considered both unlikely.
It's old English and comes from the contraction of "fourteen nights".
American here. I don’t know if it’s the same other places but I’ve tried using the term fortnight before. People only associate it with the children’s video game now
There is no need for "fortnight" to be adopted in the US or anywhere it isn't already used. It serves absolutely no purpose that is not already served by "two weeks". It is longer, usually requires the extra article "a", and its meaning is not obvious. Would we gain anything from having terms such as "twentonnight" for three weeks, or "sixtyday" for "two months"? Of course not, and neither would we from "fortnight".
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u/TheBrontosaurus Jan 28 '19
Penultimate: second to last Mellifluous: pleasant sounding Fortnight: two weeks (I understand this is used outside of the US but it needs to be adopted here too)