Why does bi-weekly mean "every two weeks?" This has always bothered me because intuitively it should mean "twice a week."
Why does bi-weekly mean "every two weeks?" This has always bothered me because intuitively it should mean "twice a week."
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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It means both. Welcome to English.
We whinge and moan about the French language police, but a curator of a global English occasionally shows merit as an idea.
If it can encourage people to learn adverbs other than 'literally' and stop munging words - "that above revert emails ask was fire" - then I'm all for it. The less a sentence looks like it was in a car crash, the better.
Gosh I said something rude, realized a second later you're probably French.
Your writing seems slightly schizophrenic.
Nope. Bi means 2, semi means half.
No it doesn’t. Lots of people misuse it that way, but:
Bi = x2 and semi = /2
So biweekly = every two weeks and semiannually means twice a year.
This is misused quite a lot, but the meanings aren’t the same, they’re opposites.
Not necessarily. The definition allows biweekly to mean both, because bi- simply refers to their being 2, so it is defined as being "twice per" or "every two". If it could only be used in the way you present then the word bifurcate would mean to replicate, as opposed to divide in two.
That being said, dictionaries will often note that semi- should be used to avoid confusion, and writing style guides, like Chicago, will state semi- needs to be used for instances where you mean twice a week.
but weekly × 2 is every 3.5 days and weekly ÷ 2 is every two weeks