this post was submitted on 14 Dec 2023
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No Stupid Questions

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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." (self.nostupidquestions)
submitted 9 months ago by LemmyKnowsBest to c/[email protected]
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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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[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Bi-weekly means twice a week, and bi-monthly (Which outside of banking I've never heard anyone ever use) means every 2 weeks.

So if I do something bi-weekly then in a month I've done it eight times. If I do something bi-monthly then in a month I've done it two times.

English is stupid. Even native speakers don't understand it.

Interestingly enough my spell check refuses to even acknowledge that bi-monthly is a valid word. It's fine with bi-weekly though. So it's entirely possible there is actually no such word and it's just been created by the banking industry to get around the fact that for some reason they can't use fortnight.