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Biannual vs. biennial
January 10, 2003, 21:57
KallehBiannual vs. biennial
In a meeting today, one of our board members discussed having a conference every
two years. She kept calling it a
biannual conference, while I thought to myself, "she really means
biennial." Then I looked it up in my AHD and on dictionary.com. My dictionary only gave the definition of "twice yearly" or "semi-annually". However, some of the sites on dictionary.com said
either twice yearly or every two years. Now--that isn't very precise is it? How do you use them?
By the way, this board member said, "
Irregardless of whether we do the conference annually or biannually....." Grrrr!
January 10, 2003, 22:19
MorganKalleh, you are right! The online dictionaries are very confusing. So I pulled out my "trusty, never dusty, Webster's" which states:
biannual ~ Occurring twice a year; semiannual.
biennial ~ Occuring every second year.
So, there you have it! She was wrong, and you were right! And you can tell her I said so!
January 11, 2003, 01:39
tinmanThe prefix
bi- is problematic since in some words it means “occurring twice in a specified period of time” while in others in means “occurring once in two periods. In other words it can have either meaning (bimonthly, 1: occurring every two months or 2: occurring twice a month : SEMIMONTHLY; biweekly, 1 : occurring twice a week or 2: occurring every two weeks : FORTNIGHTLY - M-W)
Bill Bryson, in his excellent book,
Bryson’s Dictionary of Troublesome Words (Broadway Books, 2002, previously published as Penguin Dictionary of Troublesome Words and Phrases by Penguin UK) says:
“
Bimonthly, biweekly. and similar designations are almost always ambiguous. It is far better to say ‘every two months,’ ‘twice a month,’ etc., as appropriate.”
Tinman
January 11, 2003, 09:25
KallehI wonder if the word purists would even find a distinction with
semi-annual versus
biannual. After all "semi" means half so
semi-annual should mean every 6 months. Yet,
biannual really only means twice a year. For example, I visit my dentist semi-annually (each July and December), but biannually I am in touch with my friend who lives in France. The latter example may refer to visits in June and August.
October 19, 2004, 18:23
Kalleh revising a thread...In a recent QT column, someone asked about the "biweekly"
definition because of Dictionary.com. We have talked about "biannual" before. QT, with authority, said, "'Biweekly' is every two weeks. 'Semiweekly' is twice a week."
I don't think he is correct in that. In fact, I think more people say "biweekly" to mean twice a week than every two weeks. What would you say? I am thinking of e-mailing him about our thoughts.
October 19, 2004, 21:38
tinman Usage Note:
Bimonthly and
biweekly mean “once every two months” and “once every two weeks.” For “twice a month” and “twice a week,” the words
semimonthly and
semiweekly should be used. Since there is a great deal of confusion over the distinction, a writer is well advised to substitute expressions like
every two months or
twice a month where possible. However, each noun form has only one sense in the publishing world. Thus, a
bimonthly is published every two months, and a
biweekly every two weeks.
Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Of course, you could go British on us and use
fortnightly.
Tinman
October 20, 2004, 18:56
KallehInteresting that you should mention "fortnightly," Tinman. I have been reading a lot of research reports lately, as I am preparing a systematic review. Many of these are from England. The last one I read talked about meeting "fortnightly" with the subjects, for a total of 15 meetings in a year.
October 21, 2004, 04:54
Caterwauller" meeting "fortnightly" with the subjects, for a total of 15 meetings in a year"
huh? How often is that, then? I'm confused!
*******
"Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.
~Dalai Lama
October 21, 2004, 05:59
jheemThey don't meet the other 22 weeks? It's an intercaldendary period, I guess.
October 21, 2004, 10:42
arniePresumably this is some college research. Dunno about over there, but college vacations here would leave only about 30 weeks available for working.
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
October 21, 2004, 19:48
KallehOh, I am so embarrassed.
I checked again, and arnie is right. They had said "academic calendar year." Sorry!