Fortnight

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The word derives from the Old English feorwertyne niht, meaning "fourteen nights".

The word is common in the British-Irish Isles and many Commonwealth countries such as Australia where many wages, salaries and most social security benefits are paid on a fortnightly basis. Fortnight is rarely used in United States of America, but is used regionally in Canada.

In many languages, there is no single word for a two-week period and the equivalents of "two weeks" or "fourteen days" have to be used. Payroll systems may use the term "bi-weekly" to refer to pay periods every 2 weeks (26 per year). In Spanish, Italian, French and in Portuguese, there are the terms quincena, quindici giorni, quinzaine and quinzena, all meaning "fifteen days", Similarly in Greek the term dekapenthimero meanning "fifteen days" is also used. In Arabic the short term "أسبوعان" (= two weeks) is commonly used and the longer term "خمسة عشر يوماً"(=fifteen days) is used to a lesser extent.

The fortnight can sometimes be used to describe a unit of time equal to five months in some Dickensian literature. It is also the base unit of time in the humorous FFF System of units.

References

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Last updated on Monday March 10, 2008 at 08:35:51 PDT (GMT -0700)
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