Fortnight

(One - 00:48) Maelin wisps: It's really weird how Americans don't use the word 'fortnight'.
(One - 00:48) Wallsy wisps: Yeah, I was surprised when I learned that. (From a recent Irregular Webcomic annotation)
(One - 00:48) Narf wisps: why would we say fortnight when we can say "two weeks?"
(One - 00:49) Stephanya wisps: Americans think that it's really weird that you do.
(One - 00:49) Fuzzle wisps: we never built our forts 14 days ride apart
(One - 00:49) Wallsy wisps: Because "fortnight" is more convenient, Narf.
(One - 00:49) Narf wisps: How so?
(One - 00:49) Narf wisps: Same number of syllables!
(One - 00:49) Pso wisps: why say dozen when you can say twelve?
(One - 00:49) Maelin wisps: 'Fortnight' is an excellent word. It's just bizarre that they don't use it.
(One - 00:49) Narf wisps: No, it's bizarre that you do!
(One - 00:49) Narf wisps: And that is final.
(One - 00:49) Narf wisps: It's a terrible word.
(One - 00:50) Hiyama wisps: fortnight is a great word
(One - 00:50) Wallsy wisps: Pso's point is exactly right. Sometimes you want to say twelve, sometimes you want to say a dozen. They have slightly different uses.
(One - 00:50) Narf wisps: It has nothing to do with either forts or nights.
(One - 00:50) Maelin wisps: Oh wow you're right Narf
(One - 00:50) Elodie wisps: it's also weird the way Americans 'a quarter of four' or whatever, when telling time!
(One - 00:50) Elodie wisps: say*
(One - 00:50) Narf wisps: Okay well you use a dozen in the context of buying things; what's the context for fortnight?
(One - 00:51) Narf wisps: We do not say that Elodie :P
(One - 00:51) Pso wisps: we use it in the context of referring to 'two weeks'
(One - 00:51) Elodie wisps: I've known Americans to say it, Narf! :P
(One - 00:51) Narf wisps: Dude that's not a context
(One - 00:51) Maelin wisps: E.g. if something happens every second week it is a fortnightly occurrence.
(One - 00:51) Narf wisps: fortnightly!
(One - 00:51) Maelin wisps: Case in point, going to Centrelink for dole money.
(One - 00:51) Wallsy wisps: I tend to use "fortnight" when I'm being less exact about it.
(One - 00:51) Narf wisps: ahahahaha
(One - 00:52) Narf wisps: (that was me laughing at you_
(One - 00:52) Narf wisps: )
(One - 00:52) Pso wisps: no really dude, what sort of answer do you want?
(One - 00:53) Narf wisps: Like the one I gave - dozen is used in the context of buying goods
(One - 00:53) Narf wisps: Wallsy's answer was good.
(One - 00:53) Maelin wisps: "fortnight" is used in the context of "referring to lengths of time".
(One - 00:53) Narf wisps: Yours sucked though.
(One - 00:53) Fuzzle wisps: I want 3 twelves of eggs please
(One - 00:53) Narf wisps: Wow Maelin that was just as bad.
(One - 00:53) Pso wisps: No, you'd say '36' fuzzle
(One - 00:53) Narf wisps: So is "two weeks"
(One - 00:53) Pso wisps: I want '36' eggs.
(One - 00:53) Yalpf wisps: "Fortnight" is to "week" as "hour" is to "two hours".
(One - 00:53) Yalpf wisps: Happy?
(One - 00:53) Maelin wisps: You're right. "the context of buying things" is perfectly sensible but "the concept of referring to lenghts of time", wow, that's so stupid.
(One - 00:53) Kefka wisps: how would you like them?
(One - 00:54) Narf wisps: You guys don't understand what context means I see :P
(One - 00:54) Rig wisps: fortnightilized
(One - 00:54) Yalpf wisps: ?!
(One - 00:54) Narf wisps: I ask for context and you give me a definition.
(One - 00:54) Wallsy wisps that he would never use "dozen" when buying things, because they almost always ask if you mean twelve, because there's guaranteed to be someone out there who would complain that they didn't mean twelve.
(One - 00:54) Yalpf wisps: In the context of speech.
(One - 00:54) Pso wisps: the context is.. any time you need to refer to a duration of time lasting two weeks
(One - 00:54) Narf wisps: The definition of "dozen" is "twelve". The context it is used in is "commerce."
(One - 00:54) Pso wisps: I can fit you in in a fortnight.
(One - 00:54) Narf wisps: See the difference?
(One - 00:54) Rig wisps: your mum can
(One - 00:54) Narf wisps: You are giving me the definition of "fortnight" is "two weeks."
(One - 00:54) Pso wisps: You don't just use 'dozen' in commerce though
(One - 00:55) Yalpf wisps: The context for 'dozen' is not commerce, but whenever you want to refer to a dozen...
(One - 00:55) Kefka wisps: i work in a bakery (a "bread shop", wallsy ;)) and people always ask for a dozen rolls, or half a dozen
(One - 00:55) Pso wisps: you use it any time you refer to 12
(One - 00:55) Maelin wisps: There is no specific context in which one uses "fortnight". It just means "two weeks". That's it. Whenever you would say "two weeks", you can use the word "fortnight" instead. There is no preferred context.
(One - 00:55) Narf wisps: Right Kefka, that's my point.
(One - 00:55) Aikanaro wisps: I know somebody who, if you say you want a couple of something, they ask you to be more specific.
(One - 00:55) Narf wisps: Wallsy suggested there was one!
(One - 00:55) Yalpf wisps: You know stupid people, Aikanaro. :(
(One - 00:55) Yalpf wisps: You have my deepest sympathies
(One - 00:55) Aikanaro wisps: And if you say to them, 'A couple means two' they get surprisingly defensive.
(One - 00:55) Narf wisps: And, in fact, provided quite a satisfactory example.
(One - 00:55) Narf wisps: A couple doesn't always mean two.
(One - 00:55) Narf wisps: In Pennsylvania it means three.
(One - 00:55) Pso wisps: well, by definition it does
(One - 00:55) Kefka wisps: but narf, its like asking what the contexts for 'couple' and 'few' are
(One - 00:56) Aikanaro wisps: Pennsylvania is weird. :o/
(One - 00:56) Pso wisps: well, weird.. wrong
(One - 00:56) Aikanaro wisps: I always think of a 'few' as three or more.
(One - 00:56) Pso wisps: it's all the same
(One - 00:56) Yalpf wisps: I'm so glad I live in a world enriched by the word 'fortnight'.
(One - 00:56) Narf wisps: Well how should I know that? I'm an American. The only reason I thought it had a context of use is that Wallsy told me so :P
(One - 00:56) Wallsy wisps: I said that's how I use it.
(One - 00:56) Wallsy wisps: I didn't say everyone does.
(One - 00:57) Yalpf wisps: Well isn't it normal to presume that when people are puzzled at the idea of a word having a 'context', that it doesn't have one?
(One - 00:57) Maelin wisps: It's just a word that means "two weeks". You can use it in any context in which "two weeks" is a length of time worth talking about.
(One - 00:57) Aikanaro wisps: I missed the start of this argument, could somebody provide an entertaining one sentence summary?
(One - 00:57) Narf wisps: It's normal to presume, when people give definitions instead of contexts, that they don't know what context means :P
(One - 00:57) Rig wisps: Aik: nipples.
(One - 00:57) Pso wisps: Narf is a bit weird.
(One - 00:57) Aikanaro wisps: You win, Rig.
(One - 00:57) Yalpf wisps: Oh for goodness sake.
(One - 00:57) Pso wisps: that's your summary.
(One - 00:57) Stephanya wisps: There really isn't one
(One - 00:57) Maelin wisps: Aik: Narf doesn't think that "fortnight" is a worthwhile word whilst Pso and I think it is excellent.
(One - 00:57) Yalpf wisps: I'd like you to give the conext of your face.
(One - 00:57) Pso wisps: well, your definition of context that you used for 'dozen' is stupid
(One - 00:57) Wallsy wisps: I also use "dozen" when I'm being less specific. If I want 12, I say 12. If I want abut 12 but I don't care exactly, I say "about a dozen".
(One - 00:58) Pso wisps: because the context isn't commerce
(One - 00:58) Rig wisps: it is just a useless argument. of all the arguments I have seen or started on one this is the worst.
(One - 00:58) Pso wisps: the context is 'counting'
(One - 00:58) Narf wisps: Go pk and say that!!
(One - 00:58) Pso wisps: I have a dozen children
(One - 00:58) Pso wisps: they're not for sale.
(One - 00:58) Narf wisps that he wouldn't say that.
(One - 00:58) Thakh wisps: However, I have twelve children, they are for sale.
(One - 00:58) Thakh wisps: Am I getting it right?
(One - 00:58) Narf wisps: I would say a dozen donuts, or buns, or other baked goods. Also eggs.
(One - 00:58) Pso wisps: If I bought thakh's children, I'd have 2 dozen.
(One - 00:58) Narf wisps: But never children.
(One - 00:58) Pso wisps: You'd say a dozen ANYTHINGS
(One - 00:58) Pso wisps: that you have 12 of.
(One - 00:58) Nimboos wisps: The fortnight is a unit of time equivalent to fourteen days. The word derives from the Old English feorwertyne niht, meaning "fourteen nights"... that is all
(One - 00:58) Narf wisps: Not me :P
(One - 00:58) Drakkos wisps: I will have a brace of children in a fortnight
(One - 00:58) Yalpf wisps: But admittedly is particularly common for rolls and eggs.
(One - 00:59) Aikanaro wisps: How about having a baker's dozen?
(One - 00:59) Rig wisps: if you have a dozen children you actually refer to them as a cricket team.
(One - 00:59) Niaveth wisps: are they holding up your trousers?
(One - 00:59) Pso wisps: No, I use eggs to hold up my trousers
(One - 00:59) Pso wisps: 11 eggs.
(One - 00:59) Maelin wisps: I'd use "dozen" for all sorts of things. It's a convenient sized number. A few dozen people at an event. A dozen friends over for a party.
(One - 00:59) Aikanaro wisps: Now the word 'dozen' has lost all meaning and it appears newly strange to me.
(One - 01:00) Rig wisps: Maelin: but you wouldnt necessarily say there were a dozen people at the Last Supper would you. You want something a bit more concrete
(One - 01:00) Yalpf wisps: Close your eyes, put fingers in your ears and make random noises until it all makes sense again.
(One - 01:00) Narf wisps: http://www.topmudsites.com/vote-pinkfish.html
(One - 01:00) Aikanaro wisps: I will not vote until I have received the amusing message. >:(
(One - 01:00) Pso wisps: well, a dozen means 12.
(One - 01:00) Yalpf wisps: I guess "dozen" is about equivalent to "couple". It does have a precise definition, but is often used in cases where the actual number is either not known for certain or else unimportant.
(One - 01:00) Pso wisps: it doesn't mean 'about 12'
(One - 01:00) Stephanya wisps: I wouldn't say that because in the Biblical last supper there were 13
(One - 01:01) Hiyama wisps: the dozen nights of christmas
(One - 01:01) Pso wisps: that's another good point stephanya
(One - 01:01) Maelin wisps: Right, Pso, but in many circumstances it has connotations of being less precise.
(One - 01:01) Nimboos wisps: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dozen
(One - 01:01) Rig wisps: steph: including Jesu? *spot the person who didn't go to Sunday Schoiool* :)
(One - 01:01) Narf wisps: See, Hiyama has given a good example of an inappropriate context for dozen!
(One - 01:01) Narf wisps: woo
(One - 01:01) Yalpf wisps: I guess it's strange to use in circumstances where the exact number is known and certain from the beginning.
(One - 01:01) Aikanaro wisps: At the Last Supper there were a baker's dozen of people.
(One - 01:01) Drakkos wisps: We should measure everything in Biblical Counts, which are more flowery.
(One - 01:01) Aikanaro wisps that he stares into space.
(One - 01:01) Narf wisps: Rig his name is Josh, get it right :P
(One - 01:01) Stephanya wisps: Yep. Him and 12 apostles.
(One - 01:01) Hiyama wisps: but I still like fortnight :P
(One - 01:01) Rig wisps: Drakkos: how many donkeys to a dosun's arm then?
(One - 01:01) Coyote wisps: so how many cubits in a furlong?
(One - 01:01) Yalpf wisps: No, that's a good example of a bad _use_ of 'dozen'.
(One - 01:02) Drakkos wisps: Yay, and Jesus had five brace and two disciples, and between them they ate eight couple and one eggs.
(One - 01:02) Narf wisps: What about the serving wenches?
(One - 01:02) Pso wisps: that's fair
(One - 01:02) Wallsy wisps that he likes the word "score" for talking about numbers of things too.
(One - 01:02) Pso wisps: from now on we refer to everything in couples
(One - 01:02) Pso wisps: you don't hvae 24 eggs.. you have a dozen couples
(One - 01:02) Narf wisps that he doesn't even know how much a score is.
(One - 01:02) Aikanaro wisps: If Jesus had five brace and two disciples in one hand and two brace and ten in the other, how many disciples does Jesus have if you take from him three brace and one?
(One - 01:02) Drakkos wisps: Or a dozen brace
(One - 01:02) Hiyama wisps: 20
(One - 01:02) Aikanaro wisps: Mathematics, the forgotten science.
(One - 01:02) Stephanya wisps: If they're serving you, they're not eating... When was the last time you went to a resturaunt and counted the waitress as one of your party?
(One - 01:02) Rig wisps: Steph: so if Jesus said, 'hey, that was a blast, I had a sozen good friends over for dinner last night', that could still work right. but you'd probably more like to think he might have said 'wow, great party last night, just me and my 12 disciples.'
(One - 01:03) Maelin wisps: IT'S NOT FORGOTTEN >:-(
(One - 01:03) Wallsy wisps: A score is 20. But that's exactly why you can't use it. Few people actually know what it is. :-(
(One - 01:03) Coyote wisps: thanks to Abe Lincoln a score is still known by many Merkins
(One - 01:03) Drakkos wisps: And we will use 'couplety' for multiples of ten couples.
(One - 01:03) Drakkos wisps: So eleven eggs would be 'a couplety and one'
(One - 01:03) Rig wisps that he foresees many more missions to Mars going disstrously wrong.
(One - 01:04) Narf wisps: Like "Yalpf is going to get a four couplty kicks to the neck when he goes pk!"
(One - 01:04) Drakkos wisps: 'Coupelty one' for shorthand, and informal occasions.
(One - 01:04) Yalpf wisps that he'(
(One - 01:04) Narf wisps: Or am I getting it wrong?
(One - 01:04) Maelin wisps: Rig: ?
(One - 01:04) Drakkos wisps: Wait, Narf...
(One - 01:04) Pso wisps: who knows
(One - 01:04) Drakkos wisps: I'm confused, how many is that in dozens?
(One - 01:04) Yalpf wisps: That's a factually incorrect statement.
(One - 01:04) Yalpf wisps: Everyone loves me!
(One - 01:04) Yalpf wisps: Nobody would kill me.
(One - 01:04) Rig wisps: you are all crazy!
(One - 01:05) Drakkos wisps: And over what period? If he was to get four couplety kicks in a fortnight, how many kicks would he get per day? :-/
(One - 01:05) Yalpf wisps: Wait! Stop it.
(One - 01:05) Drakkos wisps: Let's just kick him until he's unconcious.
(One - 01:05) Yalpf wisps: Nobody is going to get any couplety kicks.
(One - 01:05) Aikanaro wisps: You only hurt the ones you love, Yalpf.
(One - 01:05) Aikanaro wisps: And if everyone loves you, that's a lot of hurt.
(One - 01:05) Stephanya wisps: That's not true. I try to hurt everyone. I'm an equal opertunity destroyer.
(One - 01:06) Aikanaro wisps: You are a saint, Stephanya.
(One - 01:06) Stephanya wisps: I try. :)