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Why does "fortnight" mean two weeks?

(A. Shashidhar, Trichy)

Maybe people thought that spending one night in a fort was equivalent to spending two weeks at home! Just kidding! Actually, "fort" in the word "fortnight", is a shortening of "fourteen". So, "fortnight" is "fourteen nights". In the old days, some countries in Europe kept track of time by counting the number of nights rather than days. They believed that night preceded day. So, instead of saying "I will meet you in two days", they probably said, "I will meet you in two nights". In Old English, we also had the word "sennight". Can you guess what it means? "Sen" is a contraction of "seven".

S. Upendran

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