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DAE refuse to use the word "biweekly" because it has two different definitions? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Just say what you mean:

"every 2 weeks," or

"twice a week."

Pick the one you mean.

Because unfortunately "biweekly" can mean either of those things, which kinda makes the word useless.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The team I was on at work number of years ago had to hash this exact thing out because we had a "biweekly" status and was confusing people. We ultimately landed on not using the term.

Bimonthly and biannually have the same problem.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Biannual does not because of biennial.

Biannual: two times per every one year

Biennial: one time per every two years

No idea if there's similar words for weekly/monthly but I only know about yearly from this https://youtu.be/ljkaN_-d-Zg

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

There are not two definitions. The prefix (bi) modifies the root (week). The suffix (ly) modifies the combination (biweek). Biweekly will always mean "once every two weeks" due to the order in which English dictates that the modifiers operate.