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?

  • AnonStoleMyPants
    link
    fedilink
    61 year ago

    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.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          1
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          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.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            111 months 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

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      21 year 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.