Welcome to the community hub built on top of the Fortnight Wikipedia article.
Here, you can discuss, collect, and organize anything related to Fortnight. The
purpose of the hub is to connect people, foster deeper knowledge, and help improve
the root Wikipedia article.
A fortnight is a unit of time equal to 14 days (two weeks). The word derives from the Old English term fēowertīene niht, meaning "fourteen nights" (or "fourteen days", since the Anglo-Saxons counted by nights).[1][2]
In many languages, there is no single word for a two-week period, and the equivalent terms "two weeks", "14 days", or "15 days" (counting inclusively) have to be used.
Celtic languages: in Welsh, the term pythefnos, meaning "15 nights", is used. This is in keeping with the Welsh term for a week, which is wythnos ("eight nights").[5] In Irish, the term is coicís.
Similarly, in Greek, the term δεκαπενθήμερο (dekapenthímero), meaning "15 days", is used.
Semitic languages have a "doubling suffix". When added at the end of the word for "week" it changes the meaning to "two weeks". In Hebrew, the single-word שבועיים (shvu′ayim) means exactly "two weeks". Also in Arabic, by adding the common dual suffix to the word for "week", أسبوع, the form أسبوعين (usbu′ayn), meaning "two weeks", is formed.
Slavic languages: in Czech the terms čtrnáctidenní and dvoutýdenní have the same meaning as "fortnight".[6] In Ukrainian, the term два тижні is used in relation to "biweekly, two weeks".
^"Fortnight". The Concise Oxford Dictionary (5th ed.). 1964. p. 480.
^Senight, sennight or se'night (seven-night), an old word for the week, was still in use in the early 19th century, to judge from Jane Austen's letters.
