Talk:sesquiannual

Meaning

Ok... xkcd is evil... Apparently all the other dictionary sites are wrong and wiktionary is right.

sesquiennual is once every 1.5 years, or once every 18 months, just like biennually is once every 2 years. Like biannual is twice per year, sesquiannual is 1.5 times per year. 1.5 times per one year is 3 times per two years or 3 times per 24 months. So that's once every 24/3months , i.e. once every 8 months. — This unsigned comment was added by 2001:981:d34d:1:9d9d:1481:a6ca:90b0 (talk).

I think you meant sesquiennial instead of sequiennual.

So we have:

• biannual -> twice a year
• biennial -> every 2 years
• sesquiannual -> 1.5 times a year (or every 8 months)
• sesquiennial -> every 1.5 years (or every 18 months)

GehNgiS (talk) 09:00, 11 November 2015 (UTC)

I disagree, with proof from real-world example: The Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America has a sesquiannual meeting. The most recent was held June 26, 2014 and the next will be on January 7, 2016. 216.187.169.54 15:41, 11 November 2015 (UTC)

On Google Books, I find several reports from Sesquiannual Meeting[s] of the American Society for Rickettsiology and Rickettsial Diseases. According to that society's website, its meetings around that time period were as follows: 1996 March, Asilomar, CA, a year and a half after 1994 September, St. Simon's Island, GA, a full two years after 1992 September, Hamilton, MT, a year and four months after 1991 May, Galveston, TX, a year and 8 months after 1989 September, Diamond Point, NY, a year and five months after 1988 April, Sante Fe, NM, a year and seven months after 1986 September, Williamsburg, VA. I.e. a frequency of about a year and a half. In Surface Phenomena in Enhanced Oil Recovery (2013, →ISBN, page 718, I find a citation of R. E. Meyer, "Sesquiannual Report – April 1977-September 1978, Fossil Energy Division/DOE," DOE/W-7405-eng–26-1 (1979), i.e. again a period of one and a half years. - -sche (discuss) 21:19, 11 November 2015 (UTC)

Okay, so etymologically, it would mean one-and-a-half times a year (i.e. every 8 months). However, it seems there are cases when the word is used to mean one time every one-and-a-half years (i.e. every 18 months). Something similar happens with biannual; should this page look something like that one? 73.140.60.165 23:05, 11 November 2015 (UTC)

It depends on whether or not the "etymological" meaning has ever actually been used. biannual's usage notes seem prescriptivist. - -sche (discuss) 23:42, 11 November 2015 (UTC)

Realworld examples from rather obscure sources do not count for much in my book. Especially so if anthropologists are involved. Theirs' is a field not related to linguistics and rather empirical or "down to earth", as it were. I second GehNgiS's opinion: the point is to note the difference between "-annual" and "-ennial". Forget the first syllable for a minute: "-annual" means "per year" where "-ennial" means "every (so many) years". Compare tredecennial. So "sesquiannual" actually means 1.5 times per year and not every 1.5 years - the article should be changed to echo the word's meaning accordingly. Maybe I'm mistaken but I think wiktionary's first and foremost point should be to educate on what words actually mean, not how they might be misused by ignorants (although this might be a second function as the commenter above remarked with view on the article on biannual). --Zyrill (talk) 00:31, 20 November 2015 (UTC)

You are indeed mistaken: Wiktionary is descriptive rather than prescriptive; it describes how words are actually used. (When words aren't used by speakers at all, they're deleted, even if other authorities claim they exist: Appendix:English dictionary-only terms.) We could, I suppose, have a usage note about how -annual vs -ennial are conventionally used in other words (triannual, etc). - -sche (discuss) 01:53, 20 November 2015 (UTC)

RFV discussion: November 2015–January 2016

The following information has failed Wiktionary's verification process (permalink).

Failure to be verified means that insufficient eligible citations of this usage have been found, and the entry therefore does not meet Wiktionary inclusion criteria at the present time. We have archived here the disputed information, the verification discussion, and any documentation gathered so far, pending further evidence.
Do not re-add this information to the article without also submitting proof that it meets Wiktionary's criteria for inclusion.

---

sesquiannual

RFV-sense "that happens three times in any two year period" (i.e. once per 8 months). I cited the sense "that happens once every 1.5 years" (i.e. once per 18 months). - -sche (discuss) 21:56, 11 November 2015 (UTC)

If we follow the same distinction as with biannual vs. biennial and triannual vs. triennial, then "sesquiannual" should mean occurring one and one-half times per year, and not occurring every one and one-half years. It literally means the former, not the latter. But I seriously doubt that the word is ever used for its literal meaning. As with "biannual", it seems to be confused with "sesquiennial", and I suspect that nearly all occurrences of the word are intended to mean "sesquiennial". Since the literal meaning of the word is "occurring one and one-half times per year", that really has to be definition No. 1; however, I would parenthetically indicate that this usage is "rare", and for sense 2 give "sesquiennial; occurring once every one and one-half years." P Aculeius (talk) 03:15, 12 November 2015 (UTC)

One every 18 months IS two times every three years... It is just math. — This unsigned comment was added by 151.15.144.78 (talk).

Depends on whether the occurrences are evenly spaced - but you're probably right. Equinox ◑ 13:43, 14 November 2015 (UTC)

• Confused. This started as a debate over a sense of sesquiennial, but has just been moved to sesquiannual, and the original request for verification removed without ever having been resolved. With respect to the sense of sesquiannual meaning "two times every three years", I was about to post, "Delete unless there's some evidence that anyone uses the word with explicit reference to "twice every three years". Otherwise I'd consider almost as unnecessary as "occurring four times every six years"." However, the technical distinction between the terms still remains. Sesquiennial literally means "occurring one and one-half times per year," as unlikely as it seems that anyone would need such a word. I think it arises mainly out of confusion between -annual and -ennial. P Aculeius (talk) 14:35, 14 November 2015 (UTC)

Went ahead and put my suggestion from the first comment into effect, at least until we resolve this here. P Aculeius (talk) 14:40, 14 November 2015 (UTC)

@151.15.144.78: the "once every 18 months / 1.5 years, twice every three years" sense isn't RFVed (at least, by me); I've added citations which attested to it. It's the 'opposite' sense, "three times every two years, once every 8 months", which I couldn't find any evidence of and RFVed. (I couldn't find any evidence that either sesquiennial or sesquiannual ever meant "once every 8 months".) - -sche (discuss) 22:35, 14 November 2015 (UTC)

Okay, done some checking and Google searches. I think my original comment had it backwards. "Biannual" and "triannual" are used to mean occurring twice and thrice per year, while "biennial" and "triennial" are used to mean occurring every two or three years. So "sesquiennial" definitely means occurring every one and one-half years, while "sesquiannual" literally means occurring one and one-half times per year. However, as indicated by the usage note in "biannual", the two words are frequently conflated. I also think that there are few if any occasions when anyone would want to use "sesquiannual" for its literal meaning.

My Google searches revealed mostly language-related blogs concerning the technical distinction between the two words. And of course mirrors of Wiktionary. So nothing durably archived per se on the internet so far. I'm sure that there are published mentions somewhere. But even if we can't find them, I think it's important to note the literal meaning of "sesquiannual", even if the only examples we can find of it are in fact mistakes for "sesquiennial". P Aculeius (talk) 13:17, 15 November 2015 (UTC)

Re "This started as a debate over a sense of sesquiennial": huh? This section has been about sesquiannual from the start. The section on sesquiennial was only added to WT:RFV later, after an apparently unattested sense was added to that entry. - -sche (discuss) 20:28, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

Whatever, these two are just confusing the heck out of me. Sesquiannual is the one that should mean "occurring one and one-half times per year," which is the same thing as "occurring three times every two years", but more literal. But I doubt anybody does use it to mean that, simply because there's no need for such a word (who plans meetings or celebrations every eight months?). So there may not be any attestations on the internet for the literal meaning of the word. Sesquiennial is the one that should mean "occurring every one and one-half years," and this is what most if not all uses of sesquiannual are probably intended to mean. Can we just straighten that out? P Aculeius (talk) 11:53, 20 November 2015 (UTC)

The definition was reworded by another user, but is still unattested; I have replaced it (RFV-failed) with a usage note in diff. - -sche (discuss) 19:39, 11 January 2016 (UTC)