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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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i'm with max-- i don't use the word-- but members of family do, and i did just here it used in past month on US TV, and it was fortnite--fort night and if anything its for(swallow your breath*)t-night but the swallow your breath is a nano second... how would you express that in a pronounciation guide?
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stranger
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stranger
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Interesting discussion re: fortnight and se'enight. I have seen both used in the novels by Patrick O'Brien ( a penname) that recount the adventures of Jack Aubrey and his faithful sidekick Stephen Maturin. The reference to furlongs per fortnight is a sendup of the whole nonsense of units of measure.
Which, by the way reminds me to ask how long a rod is, how big is a cubit, and what is a talent of silver weigh?
berdonmill
berdonmill
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>>>Which, by the way reminds me to ask how long a rod is, how big is a cubit, and what is a talent of silver weigh?<<<
one rod is equal to 16.5 feet or 5.03meters. i can't help you with the others, but i'm sure someone here knows, or can find out.
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addict
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Just to widen the confusion beyond the French and their language - in Spanish a two-week period is referred to as a quinceno, also based on the number fifteen. So, perhaps there is some divide among Romance and Germanic languages on this one. I can't recall if Italian has a similar construction. Can anyone contribute on other possible languages on this divide?
Another odd note - in Spanish, to say "a week from Thursday," one says "Jueves en ocho" which is basically "8 days from Thursday." Another illustration of this counting difference, perhaps?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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HouseWolf asked Which, by the way reminds me to ask how long a rod is, how big is a cubit, and what is a talent of silver weigh?
Yes, and how much is a lac of silver worth? I remember listening to an British-Indian comedy programme on the radio in Britain a year or so ago. The skits almost always were about arranged marriages and dowries. The dowry was alway measured in lacs, and the skits almost always dissolved into a hilarious discussion of the value of a lac ...
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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addict
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addict
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Kiwi wrote: Yes, and how much is a lac of silver worth?
Going back to our friends the French, a lac of silver in that language (i.e. a lake) would be worth a LOT. The Indian word is lakh, which means 100,000, and is used to denote quantities of rupees (e.g. 50 lakhs of rupees).
BTW - my first ever use of markup, thanks to the advice in the FAQ and a suggestion from Marty to read it!
p.s. - just found an alternative spellling of this as lac - for the same numerical definition. Can also mean simply a great number: what a lakh (certainly no lack) of wordies on this board!
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old hand
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OP
old hand
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Wasn't the length of a cubit adjusted every time the Egyptians got a new Pharoah? From the tip of his "tall man" finger to his elbow. Not a wonder the people hoped the Pharoah would live for ever - they had to change all the maps and plans every time one croaked!!
stales
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Allo Bridget,
I was not attacking French people. I was attacking the notion that they find it better to INVENT words than to accept an English word that is in use be the entire population. Inventing words is not protecting your language at all. In our case it is simply a form of anti-Englishism which I find extreme.
I am French and I love my language. I love my people. But I don`t think this method is acceptable. It is important to care about one`s language but I do not think we should let people do just anything because they care. If someone is misguided, should they not be alerted to it?
As to my "quinze jours is vraiment stupide" post...well it is. Even friends and family agree that it doesn`t make sense. It is just an expression that has hung around forever.
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member
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>>>in Spanish a two-week period is referred to as a quinceno, also based on the number fifteen<<<
could this be a measure of half a month rather than a two week period? another possibility may be that they count both the beginning thursday and the ending thursday, which would be 8 or 15 days.
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
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Xara, you are absolutely right, we say in Italian "una quindicina di giorni" and we don't think at weeks, but just have the feeling of "a measure close to half month".
Ciao
Emanuela
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