How long is a fortnight?

[burkeas]

I'm reading a bunch of English books that keep saying "fortnight". I'm American and don't know what it means.

[heathfield]

It's a contraction of 'fourteen nights'. Two weeks, in other words.

[shero101]

Two weeks.

[heathfield]

'Snap', Shero, chronosynchronism strikes again!! ;-)

[con-amca]

And there's a word, very little used nowadays, for a seven day period - "sennight"

[Quizmonster]

I'm sure you mean 'synchrography', H!

[heathfield]

The Universe is always busy, busy, busy, QM !

[shero101]

heathfield, you deserve the 3 stars, your answer was much more informative :-)

[SteveD]

maybe you will find this site useful, burkeas:

http://www.hps.com/~tpg/ukdict/index.html

[bingbong1]

a fortnight is 2 weeks in other words 14 days

[Peter Pedant]

The phrases used for times seem to be particularly divergent for reasons I am not sure about

presently means in a little while (UK) but apparently immediately in US

autumn and fall

Noon and midday are times in England [12o'clock in case you were wondering] and seem to be words for earlyafternoon in America

and fortnight doesnt exist......

i have no idea why