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#142510 04/27/05 03:16 PM
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My boyfriend and I are discussing the words preceded by "bi" such as "bi-weekly" and "bi-monthly." He wholeheartedly contends that they mean "twice a week" and "twice a month" instead of "every two weeks" etc.

Does anyone know where we got this concoction of words and why they mean what we believe them to mean?


#142511 04/27/05 05:18 PM
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The prefix bi derives from the latin bis, meaning "twice." Terms such as bimonthly, meaning once every two months, and biweekly, meaning every two weeks, are so defined in the dictionary, but suggest dual meanings. The secondary definition of bimonthly is, and is designated as loosely used in my dictionary, twice a month. In speaking of occurrences cycled in weeks or parts of weeks, I prefer "semiweekly" and the British term "fortnightly" for clarity of meaning. I wonder if there is something similar to use when referring to bimonthly events? I started to say, "...when referring to monthly cycles", but that's a whole 'nother subject.


#142512 04/27/05 07:13 PM
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Sparteye, I would construe "semi-weekly" to mean at half-week intervals, or something. And then I'd be thinking "or maybe it's every other week...damn!" Fortnightly is much clearer (and it's a great word, too!)
Biennial plants flower in their second year, not twice a year. We had a bi-weekly mortgage payment for a while, which meant one every other week.


#142513 04/27/05 07:18 PM
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I looked in onelook.com, and the first three dictionaries I checked all said that biweekly means both twice a week and every two weeks. Nimonthly has a similar dichotomy of meaning. So I checked the OED, which says that the confusion might be avoided by using the prefix semi.

But nowhere do I get a clue as to why the double usage.

Hey, it's English!

Welcome aboard, Blondegirl. May we call you BG for short?

TEd



TEd
#142514 04/27/05 08:19 PM
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I looked in onelook.com, and the first three dictionaries <<I checked all said that biweekly means both twice a week and every two weeks. Nimonthly has a similar dichotomy of meaning. So I checked the OED, which says that the confusion might be avoided by using the prefix semi.>>

Teach it to the foxglove, and my heart will race in summer and in winter both.



#142515 04/27/05 09:24 PM
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There has to be a digitalis post suitable for the Wendy's thread.


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Beats me.



TEd
#142517 04/27/05 09:54 PM
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<<suitable for Wendy's>>

Fleurs du Malarchie?


#142518 04/28/05 04:36 AM
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#142519 04/28/05 01:58 PM
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Sparteye, I would construe "semi-weekly" to mean at half-week intervals, or something.

As would I, and the writers of the American Heritage and Random House dictionaries. I offer "semiweekly" and "fortnightly" as complements, not synonyms.

I suspect that the confused use of the "bi" terms comes from people variously understanding the "bi" part to be "twice" (it happens twice in the designated period) or "two" (it happens every two of the designated period). The former are more on target with original meaning, but the latter are sufficiently numerous that the dual meanings have been established.

As to "biennial", I've always readily distinguished the meaning from "biannual", and I'm wishing I was near my etymological dictionaries right now, so I could chase down the history of the distinction between "annual" and "ennial", since my AHD is only telling me that "ennial" derives from L "annus", which gets us nowhere in the end.


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