- Fortnight
The fortnight is a unit of time equivalent to fourteen days. The word derives from the Old English "feorwertyne niht", meaning "fourteen nights". [The Concise Oxford Dictionary, 5th Edition, 1964, p. 480] ["Senight", "sennight" or "se'night" (seven-night), an old word for the week, was still in use in the early nineteenth century, to judge from Jane Austen's letters.]
"Fortnight" is a commonly used word in Britain and many Commonwealth countries such as India and Australia where many wages, salaries and most social security benefits are paid on a fortnightly basis. [cite web |url=http://www.centrelink.gov.au/internet/internet.nsf/payments/pay_how_dsp.htm |title=Australian Government - How much Disability Support Pension do I get? |accessdate=2008-05-22 |format= |work= ] The word is rarely used in the United States, but is used regionally in Canada. Payroll systems may use the term ' in reference to pay periods every two weeks. The terms ' and "biweekly" are often mistakenly conflated with "".
In many languages, there is no single word for a two-week period and the equivalents of "two weeks" or "fourteen days" have to be used. In Spanish, Italian, French and in Portuguese, there are the terms "quincena" (or "quince días"), "quindici giorni", "quinzaine" and "quinzena", all meaning "fifteen days". Similarly, in Greek, the term "dekapenthimero" meaning "fifteen days" is also used. In
Arabic the short term "أسبوعان" (two weeks) is commonly used and the longer term "خمسة عشر يوماً" (fifteen days) is used to a lesser extent. InHebrew the term "שבועיים" (two weeks) is commonly used.In Welsh the term "pythefnos", meaning "fifteen nights", is used instead. This is in keeping with the Welsh term for a week, which is "wythnos" ("eight nights")
The fortnight is the base unit of time in the humorous
FFF System of units.References
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