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Why does bi-weekly mean "every two weeks?" This has always bothered me because intuitively it should mean "twice a week." (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 years ago by LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.ca

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Similar case in point: "bimonthly" means "twice a month." That makes sense.

But the definition for "bi-weekly" does not make sense.

What do you think?

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[–] jerkface@lemmy.ca 10 points 2 years ago (3 children)

I prefer to use "semiweekly" for twice in a week, and so on for other periods.

[–] Pappabosley@lemmy.world 19 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Use it in a sentence:

I used to get hard every day, but now I'm lucky to get a semiweekly

[–] PwnTra1n@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago

Please start a word of the day series

[–] perviouslyiner@lemm.ee 2 points 2 years ago

they used to eat semolina but now they eat semiweekly

[–] AnonStoleMyPants@sopuli.xyz 6 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Lmao I'd interpret that as every two weeks. Semi meaning "almost", so "semiweekly" would mean almost weekly, hence, every two weeks. I guess you could think "almost" the other way but I feel like semi is usually used in a way that is "quite but not as good", twice a week would be more than once a week so I semi would have to be every two weeks in my mind.

[–] meant2live218@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Semi just means half. Semifinals, semester, semi-truck, etc.

[–] AnonStoleMyPants@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 years ago

Right, so half the frequency, meaning every two weeks, yes?

[–] CrayonRosary@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Semi means half. Period.

[–] Orygin@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Yes, so the frequency being weekly: Half that frequency is every two weeks.

[–] CrayonRosary@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

We meet once a month (monthly)
We meet once a week (weekly)
We meet once a semiweek (semiweekly)
We meet once a day (daily)

See the pattern here? Half the interval, not half the frequency. I hope you were just being cheeky.

[–] Orygin@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 years ago

I'm not being cheeky. That's how I perceive the thing, but I'm not a native English speaker and french has a way to distinguish between both cases without using semi(which is confusing too imo). Bimensuel => 2 times a month Bimestriel => every two months

[–] pythonoob@programming.dev -2 points 2 years ago

Yes. But really no.

[–] pythonoob@programming.dev 2 points 2 years ago

I agree. If someone told me they wanted to do something semi weekly I'd assume they meant about once every week or even maybe less.

[–] Primarily0617@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

i'd interpret that as half-way to weekly, or once every two weeks