Would you like to know how long is a fortnight?
The term ‘fortnight’ originates from an Old English word ‘feowertyne niht’; is it true and how long is a fortnight? This article explains exactly that.
The dictionary definition of the term fortnight is a period of fourteen days and nights- that’s two weeks. It was derived from an ancient Old English word feowertyne niht to mean ‘fourteen nights’.
The word originates from Great Britain because employees are paid on after 14 days of work, however, in other countries such as the United States, it’s known as ‘two weeks’.
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So, How Long Is A Fortnight?
In this article, we take a look at every aspect possible to answer this question.
Read on to learn more.
If a fortnight is two weeks or 14 days, it means there are 26 fortnights per year. When calculated in hours, a fortnight has 336 hours and in minutes, a fortnight is 20,160 minutes.
Sounds confusing, right?
No, don’t get confused.
We will explain everything so you can understand the term better.
What’s The Origin Of The Word Fortnight?
As mentioned above, the word fortnight is derived from an Old English word, feowertyne niht, which means two weeks or fourteen days and nights.
Fortnight is used mostly in the UK but not in the US, people use two weeks although it implies the same period of time.
When Is Fortnight Used?
Usually, a fortnight is used to refer to something, a seminar, a tournament or anything that’s expected to take place in the next coming two weeks. Therefore, one could say, “we will be traveling to the Netherlands in a fortnight’s time” which means, two weeks from now, we will be traveling to the Netherlands.
And if it’s an event that occurs frequently every two weeks, people would use “fortnightly”.
Well, of course, there are countries, whose two weeks’ time is more than fourteen days- about 15 days. So you can’t use the word ‘fortnight’ there but you say ‘a 15-day period’.
The Greek word for a 15-day period is ‘dekapenthimero’ and the Welsh use ‘pythefnos’. Other countries have terms that refer to a 15-day period as well.
Surprisingly, there is another similar word, ‘se’night’ or ‘sennight’. Jane Austen has used this term in most of his writings, especially in her novel ‘Pride and Prejudice’.
This is also an ancient English phrase that refers to seven nights but currently, most people use ‘a week’.
Well, all these terms are used by humans to measure the passing time minutes, hours, days, weeks, moths, year, etc.
In conclusion, “how long is a fortnight’ a fortnight is equivalent to 14 days and nights.
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