Biweekly and bimonthly each also meaning their respective reciprocals.
(Every two periods, or twice a period.)
If a technical term such as a frequency specifier has multiple incompatible meanings then it has no value and needs to stop being used entirely. Or one of the meanings chosen as correct and the others rejected forcefully (good luck with that)
It’s funny that there are two unambiguous alternatives to bimonthly, but they both mean 2x/month: fortnightly and semimonthly.
Both German and Dutch distinguish their equivalent words with clear prefixes meaning half- and two-. The English word was unclear after 1066 since the French word bimensuel would have been used by the new bosses. And that means 2x/month. English used bimensual for a while before developing a new, worse word with the Latin origin bi- and the Germanic origin -monthly. And it seems to have been ambiguous from the start. So this has probably been messed up for almost 1050 years.
Maybe we should resurrect the Old English prefix twi- to make a new(old) 1x/2months word twimonthly or more intuitively, twomonthly that we can use in opposition with halfmonthly.
I’m paid twice a month and they call it semi-monthly here though, husband is paid every two weeks and his company calls that biweekly.
I would never use bimonthly to mean twice a month, and haven’t heard anyone use it that way in real life; but the only thing that happens twice a month for me is payroll, so it hasn’t come up in conversation outside of that.
Biweekly and bimonthly each also meaning their respective reciprocals.
(Every two periods, or twice a period.)
If a technical term such as a frequency specifier has multiple incompatible meanings then it has no value and needs to stop being used entirely. Or one of the meanings chosen as correct and the others rejected forcefully (good luck with that)
It’s funny that there are two unambiguous alternatives to bimonthly, but they both mean 2x/month: fortnightly and semimonthly.
Both German and Dutch distinguish their equivalent words with clear prefixes meaning half- and two-. The English word was unclear after 1066 since the French word bimensuel would have been used by the new bosses. And that means 2x/month. English used bimensual for a while before developing a new, worse word with the Latin origin bi- and the Germanic origin -monthly. And it seems to have been ambiguous from the start. So this has probably been messed up for almost 1050 years.
Maybe we should resurrect the Old English prefix twi- to make a new(old) 1x/2months word twimonthly or more intuitively, twomonthly that we can use in opposition with halfmonthly.
Eh? Semi-monthly is twice a month. Bimonthly is every two months.
Semi-weekly is twice a week, biweekly is fortnightly, every two weeks.
They work the same.
Look up “bimonthly pay”.
I’m paid twice a month and they call it semi-monthly here though, husband is paid every two weeks and his company calls that biweekly.
I would never use bimonthly to mean twice a month, and haven’t heard anyone use it that way in real life; but the only thing that happens twice a month for me is payroll, so it hasn’t come up in conversation outside of that.
I guess I share in your outrage then.