time

[jaffa28]

why are two weeks called a fortnight

[GEEMAC]

Short for 'fourteen nights'.

[GEEMAC]

By the way, why did you post this in 'food and drink'/

[sense4all]

To confuse Americans !

[Donquixote]

When i was at school i always remember a history teacher telling us that the word 'fortnight' dates from Norman times. When a castle or fort would be sieged, the enemy would surround it, and those persons locked inside would have to fend off the aggressors until all supplies of food and ammunition ran out. This could take several weeks, if not months to achieve. Therefore, it became barrack-humour that anyone sent to defend a stronghold would be off to 'spend a fort-night'.

I don't know if there's any truth in this, but i love the story!

[GrumpyOldMan]

My dad always used to make comment about his tea that it was "that weak it's nearly a fortnight"!

[Jugglering]

My Concise Oxford English Dictionary tells me that *fortnight* comes from the Old English feowertiene niht which means fourteen nights...

I wonder why we use *week* for 7 days/nights instead of the Old English seofon nihta which became *sennight* and is listed as being archaic in the same dictionary.