fortnight
pronunciation
How to pronounce fortnight in British English:
UK [ˈfɔːtnaɪt]
How to pronounce fortnight in American English:
US [ˈfɔːrtnaɪt]
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- Noun:
- a period of fourteen consecutive days
Word Origin
- fortnight
- fortnight: [13] The ancient Germanic peoples recorded the passing of time in units of ‘nights’ rather than, as we do, in units of ‘days’: hence a period of two weeks was in Old English fēowertīene niht, or ‘fourteen nights’. By early Middle English times this was starting to be contracted to the single word fortnight. (The parallel sennight ‘week’ [15] – literally ‘seven nights’ – survived dialectally into the 20th century.)=> fourteen
- fortnight (n.)
- "period of two weeks," 17c. contraction of Middle English fourteniht, from Old English feowertyne niht, literally "fourteen nights," preserving the ancient Germanic custom of reckoning by nights (mentioned by Tacitus in "Germania" xi). Related: Fortnightly.
Example
- 1. The next leg is played at old trafford in a fortnight .
- 2. Arteta got another taste of the champions league in dortmund a fortnight ago and cannot wait for his first european night in north london .
- 3. Lunar new year begins this year on february 10 , but banqueting season is normally in full swing at least a fortnight before .
- 4. After a fortnight of sarah palin fixation in the press - in turn contributing to a republican bounce in the polls , comes news today that obama has a two-point lead in the us presidential race , according to a reuters / zogby poll .
- 5. The internal israeli debate was launched in an article by nahum barnea , perhaps israel 's most important journalist , in the country 's most popular daily , yediot aharonot , a fortnight ago .