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biweekly
4

biweekly

biweekly

(OP)
Does biweekly means twice pr week or once every second week (once pr forthnight)?

RE: biweekly

I wonder too...

RE: biweekly

My Random House dictionary lists both possibilities.  It then offers the following usage note:

Since it is not always clear which meaning of biweekly is intended -- "twice as week" or "every two weeks" -- the use of semiweekly for "twice a week" is preferrable because it is unambiguous.  Since there is no single, unambiguous term for "every two weeks," this phrase itself is the least confusing to use.

RE: biweekly

"Fortnightly" sounds pretty unambiguous to me.

M

--
Dr Michael F Platten

RE: biweekly

In my limited experience, bi-weekly refers to ever two weeks, and is the time schedule for many payrolls.  Twice a month is semi-monthly.

This may be a regional thing.

Good Luck
--------------
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

RE: biweekly

Semiweekly is very obscure to me. "Semi" like in semiconductor means half. So "semiweekly" could as well be half as often as weekly. I.e. once every two weeks.  

But, on the other hand, semester means half a year. So there could be some logic in it.

RE: biweekly

This goes back to other forums about the English language. There are different meanings for everything we say. Almost any will do ... bi-weekly, semi-weekly ... as long as the person you say it to understands what you mean. I use bi-weekly, to me it means twice a week, but most people seem to understand it.

RE: biweekly

Perhaps biweekly is a weekly publication for people who, you know..... bicycle.

RE: biweekly

Quote:

"Fortnightly" sounds pretty unambiguous to me.

Four time a night?  Every night, in a fort?

RE: biweekly

(OP)
ctopher

My question has relevance to a contractual matter. Neither of the parties involved in the negotiations has english (or american for that matter) as their native tounge.

Best regards

Morten

RE: biweekly

How about dos-weekly? Just kidding.
Our European customers seem to use bi-weekly alot.

RE: biweekly

What happens if you look at and apply the basic definitions of the two prefixes in question?

Bi- two or double.  Bicycle - two wheels, biweekly - two weeks.
Semi- cut it half.  Semi-annually, half of a year, semi-skilled - half skilled.

Good Luck
--------------
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

RE: biweekly

I would say biweekly is every two weeks and twice a week is two times in one week.

Go Mechanical Engineering
Tobalcane

RE: biweekly

Quote:

What happens if you look at and apply the basic definitions of the two prefixes in question?

Dont forget the suffex.  "ly", every.

Weekly = every week

biweekly = two every week.

If it is a contractual issue, and it is ambiguous, or subject to differing interpretation, don't use the word.

Spell out exactly what you need.

RE: biweekly

MintJulep ... I assume you were being humorous, but just in case ... fortnight is a contraction of "forteen nights".

CajunCenturion ... Your definition is spot on.

Tobalcane ... "twice a week" ... I wish.

RE: biweekly

I heard something about ...once a week makes a man weak... I wonder if semiweekly is better or worse? And does it make a man semiweak? Or twice as weak?

RE: biweekly

MortenA,

People on this board get a lot of entertainment from poking fun at the variuos meanings some some words can have in different countries or even different parts of thier own country. But, if your considering certain wording on contractual issues, spell out what you want to say in PLAIN English. Avoid any wording that can be missunderstood by anybody unless you have defined exactly what you mean.

NozzleTwister
Houston, Texas

RE: biweekly

(OP)
mintjulep

I think you are right with regards to use of the word and will use another term thats more presice.

Best regards

Morten

RE: biweekly

"Fowler's Modern English Usage" is unambiguous on this point - the terms are ambiguous, so don't use them if you wish to be understood. It points out that "Rules do not help because they are not universally followed".

Even though biweekly and bimonthly, etc, have primary dictionary definitions meaning "every two weeks" and "every two months" respectively, in common usage they  are used roughly equally to mean "twice a week" or "every two weeks", and most dictionaries note both usages. Accordingly, it is best to avoid using the terms altogether - especially in any form of legal contract. If you are having trouble with interpretation while you are drafting the document, why on Earth would you want to leave the term in, for the lawyers to have a field day with later?!

Note that there is one form for which there is a definite distinct usage:

"biannual" = "twice a year" (e.g a biannual plant, if there is such a thing, would flower twice a year.)

"biennial" = "every two years", or "lasting two years" (e.g. a number of cities have biennial arts festivals, every two years.)

However, I would avoid these words as well, because there would be just as much potential for confusion.

It is interesting that there are some "bi-" words for which there is no real likelihood of confusion, even though some of them mean "to double", whereas others mean "to halve":

bilingual = able to speak two languages. (I guess we assume that everyone can speak more than half a language - although this is debatable in some cases. I have a colleague who claims to be bilingual in English and French. Knowing how poor his writing skills are in English, he could be approximately one-quarter literate in two languages, which would make him bilingual, I guess!)

bisect = to cut in half. (But why don't we imagine that we could double an angle, just as easily as halving it?)

bicycle = 2 wheeled vehicle. (Because half a wheel is useless.)

bifurcate = to divide into two branches. (So is this "halving" or "doubling" the original?)

biodegradable = twice as degradable as ordinary plastic (Joke!)

RE: biweekly

Twice a week means twice a week.
Every two weeks means every two weeks.

Surely since we do live in a world where it sometimes appears that we work hard to miscommunicate, someone can find a way to make either or both of the above two statements ambiguous.


Leonard

RE: biweekly

"bi" means "two"
"semi" means "half"
Confusion between the two should only be among the illiterate or semi-literate.  (Then, of course, those who know the difference have to deal with the writings of those who do not know the difference, and have to wonder what they meant.)

(Obviously, "bi-literate" here would be an absurd concept, although I suppose it could be applied to someone literate in at least two languages.)

RE: biweekly

Because the confusion is epidemic, though, as others have said it's good to avoid the word in contracts.  If it's a question of interpreting an existing contract, however, the strict defition (as opposed to a lenient dictionary acknowledging a changing usage) must govern.

Here's another one that drives me nuts:  "comprise" is not a fancy word for "compose".  It's just the opposite--the whole comprises the parts.  I can't remember the last time I saw that word used correctly.  Dammit, if you mean "compose", say "compose".  Using the "fancier" word doesn't show off your vocabulary; it just marks you as ignorant, even if this error does put you in illustrious and longstanding company.  Dammit.

Hg

RE: biweekly

Composed of, Comprises, Contains, Consists of, Embodies, Includes ... take your pick.

RE: biweekly

But not "is comprised of".  Bleah.

Hg, OT

RE: biweekly

Is than an all encompassing list?

Good Luck
--------------
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

RE: biweekly

I don't think a dictionary helps us here, because it only describes the interpretation that 51% of us apply, it does not eliminate miscommunications.

Let's engineer ourselves out of this problem.

Unlike in maths, no priorities have been assigned to the different operators "bi" and "ly". So we need parentheses:

(biweek)ly means once every two weeks;
bi(weekly) means twice every week.

I know it looks funny (so did the wheel in the beginning) but it works.

RE: biweekly

By and by we're all Bi.

RE: biweekly

What about tri-weekly ?

tri-weekly
try weekly
try weakly

RE: biweekly

why do some of you insist on trying to convince us that what the writer meant and what the reader understood is obvious when using bi and semi?  OK so you are a little more literate than me.  I tend to be a little slow and sometimes have to stop to think -- what does the writer really mean?  As mentioned earlier, sometimes the writer is semi-bi literate.

If the more clearly understood phrases were not available, then you might have a legitimate argument.  Just say what you mean and mean what you say in plain English or whatever langauage you are dealing with.  Why would you want to take a chance on being misundrestood especially in the case presented?

For example; in one report writing class we were cautioned not to use flowery words like coloration when the word color would work just dandy.  Not that bi or semi is flowery but the point is that we are here to talk about how to become better communicators and although I appreciate the jokes, a bit of thoughtful reasoning is also appreciated.

Leonard

RE: biweekly

One issue is choice of word to use.  The other is interpretation of a word already written into the contract by someone else.

Hg

RE: biweekly

Good point.  We can choose to be less ambiguous by our choice of words and therefore leave less room for misinterpretion.  The second issue might be more correctly termed a problem only to be solved by a attorneys.  Oops-- is it PC to use the word problem these days?

Leonard

RE: biweekly

It would be an opportunity, rather than a problem, for attorneys.

RE: biweekly

Unqualified biweekly will mean twice a week to me. Why someone should use biweekly instead of fortnightly when the intended duration is of about 2 weeks?

RE: biweekly

When speaking of time intervals, bimonthly, as biweekly, has two recognized -confusing- meanings. However, biannual, or biennial (twice a year), as well as bicentennial (once every 200 years) don't. Can anybody explain the reasons ?

RE: biweekly

"Biannual" isn't *as* confunsed as "bimonthly" and "biweekly" because it has "biennial" to cover the "every two" meaning.  All those "ennials" have to do with periods of N years (backformed from "biennium", "triennium", "quadrennium").

In theory there's a nice tidy division of labor between "semi-" (twice per) and "bi-" (every two).  "Biannual" messes it all up and provides a pressure to use the other "bi-" words where "semi-" should be.  I don't have access right now to a good etymological dictionary; I'd love to see when "biannual" came into the language and if it was significantly before or after "biweekly" and "bimonthly".

Hg

RE: biweekly

Semi and hemi, as prefixes, suggest "half of" as in semiannual. While biweekly or biannual don't necessarily mean equal intervals.

BTW, in spanish we frequently use hebdomadal instead of weekly as for magazines. When the intention is once every two weeks we use quincenal (from quince=fifteen).
We also have bimensual for twice a month (twice-monthly) and bimestral for every two months (two-monthly).

RE: biweekly

Hey Mercury Texas,
Try typing etymology into Google.  It will bring up an  etymological dictionary.  If you go there, let us know if this is a good one by your standards.

Maybe this is another reason that I never really got into horticulture.  I could not quite aquire the knack of figuring out what was meant by 'ennial 'annual etc when prefixed with semi' bi' or 'ennial without the prefix.  If you can't just say, "every six months" or  whatever you really mean, I will try to avoid the communication by whatever means unless I am required to deal with it.

Horse Sense is something that horses have that keeps them from betting on people.  It also keeps them from voting for people.

Leonard

RE: biweekly

Just to add some further confusion, some years ago I worked for a Norwegian company and in conversation with colleagues would maybe arrange a meeting for "half one", meaning 1:30pm - their understanding however was 12:30pm

Ed

RE: biweekly

The "fractional" times are usually accompanied with "past" (or "after") or "to".

In the UK, it was usually stated as, a quarter after twelve, half past three, a quarter to five.

RE: biweekly

In English, fractional times get "past" or "to"--except when they don't.  I've definitely heard "half one" to mean 1:30, from either Irish or British speakers, can't remember who exactly.  But to speakers of German (and apparently Scandinavian languages), it goes the other way as Ed says.  (So someone says "half one", and I have to ask whether that means half past one, and they think I'm an idiot.)

I thought I answered metman way back, but I guess not.  The etymological dictionary Google brings up is a good one for what it has, but it doesn't have the words in question.

Hg

RE: biweekly

Perhaps it's linguistic laziness on the part of us Brits, specifically, Scots - that it never occurred to me the need to include "past" when saying "half one" - nicely said HgTX

Ed

RE: biweekly

I'd love to be around a mix of Germans and Brits trying to plan a gathering on the half-hour.

Hg

RE: biweekly

For a bit more confusion regarding payroll, a few biweekly formulas (fix the Latin if you wish) exist.  Where paid biweekly, some deduct benefits all 26 weekly deductions; others use 24 biweekly deductions where benefits are only taken twice per month, even for five week months.

John

RE: biweekly

So they really mean semimonthly, not to be confused with bimonthly.

Hg

RE: biweekly

Someone mentioned earlier "a biannual plant, if there is such a thing, would flower twice a year.)

There is such a thing (foxgloves, mullien, carrots) but they have a 2 year lifespan.

Annuals - sprout, grow, flower, set seed, and die all in one season

Biannuals - sprout and grow leaves the first year, shoot up a flower stalk, set seed and die the second.


Just to add to the confusion

RE: biweekly

Hmmm.  Thanks MEIam now I understand -- kind of sort of.

A company where I used to work changed payroll from every two weeks (semiweekly?) to bimonthly (twice a month?).  No, I got it backwards or was it the other way around?  At any rate (well actually it was one rate and then another -- pay rate that is) my coworker did the math and convinced me that we were actually getting paid more even though our yearly salary "supposedly" stayed the same.  It gets pretty tricky when you think about how our calendar is set up.  Don't ask me to explain it because it hurts my head just thinking about it.  Our comptroller was having no part of it as it would not look good on him but must have made his accounting easier.


RE: biweekly

how about either
104 times per year
or
26 times per year...
..prorated on a semiannual basis for perennial contracts

Keep the wheels on the ground
Bob
showshine@aol.com

RE: biweekly

Yes but that does not allow for leap year.  There are actually 365-1/4 days per year.

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