2021-05-31 ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด – B – bimonthly

Revision B

2021-05-31

ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด – B – bimonthly

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Dictionary.com

ออกเสียง bimonthly – ‘bahy-MUHNTH-lee’

Dictionary.com

VOCAB BUILDER

What does bimonthly mean?

Bimonthly iscommonly used to mean one of two things:

once every two months or twice per month.

It can beused this way as an adjective,

as in: a bimonthly meeting, or an adverb,

as in: We plan to meet bimonthly.

Yes, you can sometimes figure out

what bimonthly means

from the context of the sentence. But not always.

The term bimonthly meeting mightmean

that it happens twice a month or every two months

—both senses of the word are commonly used.

Here’s the best (and maybe only) wayto be perfectly clear:

just say “twice a month” or “once every two months.”

Bimonthly can also be used as a noun

referring to a publication

that’s published twice per month or once every two months

(as opposed to a daily or weekly, for example).

Examples:

• New episodes of my bimonthly podcast come out on the first and 15th of every month.
• Let’s plan to meet bimonthly so we can fit in six meetings this year.

Where does bimonthly come from?

The first records of the word bimonthly come from the 1800s.

The prefix bi- means “twice” or “two.”

The suffix -ly, which usually forms adverbs,

is used in bimonthly tomean “every.”

It’s used in the same way in several other units of time, including hourly, daily, monthly, and yearly.

Differentprefixes can be added to monthly

to indicatea different period of time,

such as: in trimonthly (every three months or three times a month)

and semimonthly (twice a month).

When intended to mean “twice a month,”

bimonthly issometimes replaced with semimonthly for clarity,

but this might not help,

especially since semimonthly is much less common.

Further confusing things is the fact that

bimonthly can essentially mean biweekly— “every two weeks.”

But biweekly can also mean “twice a week.”

The easiest thing to do is just say exactly

when the meetings will be — or cancel them all together.

Dictionary.com

Does “Bimonthly” Mean Twice A Month Or Every Two Months?

Both! Bimonthly can refer to something happening

“every two months” or “twice a month.”

Yep, bimonthly has, fittingly enough,two meanings

.

What does bi– mean?

The prefix bi- means “two,” from the Latin bis, “twice.”

The suffix -ly, which usually forms adverbs,

is used in bimonthly to mean “every.”

It’s used in the same way in several other units of time,

 including hourly, daily, monthly, and yearly.

What does bimonthly mean?

The firstrecords of the word bimonthly come from the 1800s. A bimonthly publication can come out two times a month

(on the second and last Friday, for instance)

or every two months (January, then March, then May, and so on).

Different prefixes can be added to monthly

to indicate a different period of time,

such as in trimonthly (every three months or three times a month) and semimonthly (twice a month).

When intended to mean “twice a month,”

bimonthly is sometimes replaced with semimonthly for clarity,

but this might not help, especially since semimonthly is much less common.

What does biweekly mean?

Now, what if your boss schedules biweekly meetings with you?

Does that mean they occur twice a week

(Tuesday and Thursday, for instance)

or that you meet one time every two weeks

(the first and last Mondays of the month, say)? It could mean both!

Then there’s biannual.

A biannual event could take place twice a year

(June, then December, for example)

or every other year (2019, 2021, etc.).

Honestly, we don’t even know what time it is, anymore.

Is there a clearer wayto indicate dates?

Enter semi–, a prefix meaning “half” (also from Latin).

Semimonthly isgenerally taken as “twice a month,”

as if it cuts the monthin half.

Semiweekly happens “twice a week.”

Semiyearly or semiannual falls “twice a year.”

If these words don’t come quickly to mind,

you can always just be specific:

“I’m setting up meetings twice a week” or

“Let’s meet every other week.”

Or, you can take a page from British English’s playbook

and use fortnightly.

A fortnight is a period of two weeks.

Fun fact:

the fort in fortnight has nothing to do with Fort McHenry

or the pillow forts you built as a kid.

The word is smushed down from the Middle English fourtennight,

from Old English fēowertēne niht

—the span of fourteen nights (days).

If all else fails, context, context, context!

If you get a new job that pays biweekly, odds are

—given how the world works and all

—you get paid every other week.

But hey, if you want to pay us twice a week, go ahead then!

Dictionary of Problem Words in English

Bimonthly

Because bi- (a learned borrowing from Latin)

can correctly mean both “two” and “twice,”

our language would be more exact

if we employed semi- (“half”) more often.

A good rule to followis this:

use bi- tomean “two” and semi- to mean “half.”

The A-Z of Correct English Common Errors in English Dictionary

Bimonthly

Avoid using BIMONTHLY as it has two conflicting meanings.

It can mean both every two months andalso twice a month.

(Compare BIWEEKLY.)

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

What do bimonthly and biweekly mean?:Usage Guide

Adjective

Many people are puzzled about bimonthly and biweekly,

which are often ambiguous

because they are formed from two different senses of bi-:

"occurring every two" and "occurring two times."

This ambiguity has been in existence for nearly a century and a half

and cannot be eliminated by the dictionary.

The chief difficulty is that many users of these words

assume that others know exactly what they mean,

and they do not bother to make their context clear.

So, if you need bimonthly or biweekly,

you should leave some clues in your context

to the sense of bi- you mean.

And if you need the meaning "twice a,"

you can substitute semi- for bi-. Biannual

and biennial are usually differentiated.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Usage Notes

On 'Biweekly' and 'Bimonthly'

Sorry, not sorry

What to Know

Biweekly and bimonthly can mean the same thing

because of the prefix bi-,

which here can mean “occurring every two” or“occurring twice in.”

Therefore, biweekly can be “twice in a week” or “every other week.”

Bimonthly can also mean "every other week"

if it's twice in a month, or it can mean “every other month.”

Look up the adjective biweekly in this dictionary

and you will see it defined as "occurring every two weeks"

AND as "occurring twice a week."

Similarly, the adjective bimonthly

is defined as "occurring every two months"

AND as "occurring twice a month."

For this, we are sorry.

But we don't mean "sorry" in the sense that we feel penitence;

we are not to blame.

We mean "sorry" in the sense that we feel a kind of sorrow

aroused by circumstances beyond our control or power to repair.

For, as anyone who pays attention to our work surely recognizes,

we are at the mercy of the language.

We diligently record the English lexicon

in both its measured expansions and

its wild proliferations,

and any insistence by us that

it favor the former over the latter is as whispers into a gale.

Biweekly and bimonthly each have a pair of meanings

that are unhelpfully at odds with one another.

Those meanings exist, and we cannot ignore them.

The problem liesin the prefix bi-:

it means (among other things) both

"coming or occurring every two," AND "coming or occurring two times."

This too is a long-established fact that we cannot ignore.

English is sometimes simply obstreperous.

However intractable the English language may at times be,

it can be helpful to remember

just the many casesin which the language is not ambiguous,

in which its offerings include words

that refer to precise gradations or fine distinctions.

One such case, sort of, is very similar to the cases at hand:

the language offers us biannual for "twice a year"

and biennial for "every two years."

This is useful and elegant, but, alas, also frequently botched, with biannual so frequently used to mean "every two years"

that we've had to enter that meaning in our dictionaries.

But here another solution is readily available:

skip biannual altogether and use in its place the common semiannual.

Ah, semi-! Just as a semicircle cuts a circle in half,

so too does the prefix semi-

semantically cut what it is affixed to in half:

semiweekly means unambiguously two times per week;

semimonthly means two times per month;

semiannual means two times per year.

It's an excellent option,

and one that many writers seem to embrace;

we most often see bimonthly and biweekly

reserved for their "every two" meanings.

Another solution is to avoid the bi- compounds altogether

and come right out with it: "twice a week," "every other month."

As writer or speaker,

you can choose to avoid ambiguity by usinga semi- compound

when you mean "two times per,"

or by using a phrase instead of a single word.

In fact, so fraught is this territory that you'd do well to make sure

that your context explains just what you mean

when you use any of these bi- compounds:

"Employees are paid bimonthly, on the first and third Fridays of the month."

But what about when you're at the mercy of English

as it's wielded by others?

Well, when you are a reader or listener,

we're afraid the best you can do is to approach

biweekly and bimonthly with a bit of side-eye

—and perhaps the kind of sorrow aroused

by circumstances beyond your control or power to repair.