fortnight

English

WOTD – 6 February 2009    

Wikipedia

Etymology

Contracted form of Old English fēowertȳne (“fourteen”) niht (“nights”). Compare sennight.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈfɔːt.naɪt/, X-SAMPA: /"fO:t.naIt/
• (US) IPA: /ˈfɔɹʔ.nʌɪtʔ/, X-SAMPA: /"fOrt.naIt/
• (NY) IPA: [ˈfɔəʔ.nɐjʔ], X-SAMPA: ["fO@?.naj?]

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

fortnight (plural fortnights)

1. (chiefly UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand) A period of fourteen nights; two weeks.

Synonyms

• (two weeks): halfmonth

Adverb

fortnight (not comparable)

1. After a fortnight has passed.

   1852 Charles Dickens, Bleak House: We will proceed with the hearing on Wednesday fortnight.

Related terms

• fortnightly
• microfortnight

Translations

period of two weeks

• Breton: pemzektez m pl -ioù
• Catalan: quinzena (ca) f (actually 15 days)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 两周 (cmn), 兩周 (cmn) (liǎngzhōu)

• Dutch: veertien dagen pl, twee weken pl
• Esperanto: duonmonato, du semajnoj
• Finnish: kaksi viikkoa
• French: quinzaine (fr) f (actually 15 days)
• German: vierzehn Tage, zwei Wochen
• Greek: δεκαπενθήμερο (el) n (dekapenthímero) (actually 15 days)
• Guernésiais: (actually 15 days) tchinze jours m pl
• Hungarian: két hét (hu)
• Icelandic: tvær vikur (is) f pl, hálfur mánuður (is) m, fjórtán dagar (is) m pl
• Irish: coicís (ga) f
• Italian: (periodo di) due settimane; quindicina (it) f (actually 15 days)

• Japanese: 二週間 (にしゅうかん, nishūkan)
• Jèrriais: tchînze jours m
• Macedonian: две недели ('two weeks'); полумесечие (mk) (polumeséčie) n (actually 15 days)
• Norwegian: to uker (no) pl, fjorten dager (no)
• Polish: dwa tygodnie m pl
• Portuguese: quinzena (pt) f (actually 15 days)
• Romanian: două săptămâni (ro) f pl
• Russian: две недели
• Scots: fortnicht
• Scottish Gaelic: cola-deug (gd) m
• Spanish: quincena (es) f pl (actually 15 days)
• Swedish: två veckor (sv) pl, fjorton dagar (sv)
• Telugu: పక్షము (pakshamu)
• Volapük: telvig (vo)

See also

• sennight