Trivia
HardThe Word “Fortnight” Is Derived From?

Answer: An Old English Contraction
If you’d never given much thought to the word “fortnight”, an English word that denotes a length of fourteen days, it’d be easy to assume it has something to do with military history. After all, the word seems like a pretty straightforward contraction of “fort” and “night”.
The word is a contraction, but a very old one, and the “fort” portion of it has nothing to do with military outposts. Fortnight comes to us by way of the Old English term “fēowertȳne niht”, or “fourteen nights”, and over time simply became “fortnight”.
The word is old enough that we have no concrete records of when it first came into use, nor do we have any concrete indication of why, but it’s safe to assume that English needed a simple way to express a unit of time readily analogous to half a month. Thus fortnight was born.
Still in regular use in most of the English-speaking world today, the word has fallen largely out of favor in North America, with intervals of two week events (such as receiving a paycheck every two weeks) described as “biweekly”—a word we find a tad inelegant compared to “fortnightly”, since biweekly could be interpreted to mean every other week or twice a week, whereas fortnightly has a singular definition.
Trivia
HardNevermind, A Psychological Horror Video Game, Uses What Technique To Increase Game Difficulty?
Trivia
HardThe Speed Of Electricity Was First Measured By What Method?
Trivia
HardWhat Was Google’s Original Name?
Trivia
EasyThe Bikini Derives Its Name From What Unlikely Source?
Trivia
HardThe Modern Drinking Fountain Was Invented To Combat?
Trivia
HardThe Best Known Example Of Thanatosis In The Animal Kingdom Is Found In The?
Trivia
HardSamsung’s First Products Weren’t Electronics But?
Trivia
EasyGoogle Tends The Lawn Of Their Sprawling Mountain View Headquarters With What?