fortnight

English

WOTD - 6 February 2009    

Wikipedia

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈfɔːt.naɪt/, SAMPA: /"fO:t.naIt/
• (US) IPA: /ˈfɔɹt.naɪt/, SAMPA: /"fOrt.naIt/
• (NY) IPA: [ˈfɔəʔ.najʔ], SAMPA: ["fO@?.naj?]

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

fortnight (plural fortnights)

1. A period of fourteen nights; two weeks.

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

Synonyms

• (two weeks): halfmonth

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. (actually 15 days) 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) Macedonian: полумесечие (mk) (polumeséčie) n. Norwegian: to uker (no) pl., fjorten dager (no) Polish: dwa tygodnie m. pl. Portuguese: quinzena (pt) f. (actually 15 days) 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