russ ([info]goulo) wrote,
@ 2008-03-26 10:59:00
Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
biannual, biennial, semiannual, bimonthly
The English words "semiannual" clearly means "every half year", but "biennial" and "biannual" are confusingly similar. Unfortunately "biannual" has become rather useless because people don't agree wither it means "every two years" or "every half year" (seemingly the original true meaning), and many dictionaries actually give both definitions! Embarrassingly I just realized I've been brainfarting for a long time, and erroneously thought that "biannual" means "every two years" (the lame definition). Similar ambiguity exists with "bimonthly" ("every two months" or "every half month"), but periodicals (and I) use it to mean "every two months", apparently its original meaning (i.e. the opposite sense of "biannual"). This sort of thing is much nicer in Esperanto!

La angla vorto "semiannual" klare signifas "ĉiuduonjara", sed "biennial" kaj "biannual" konfuze similas. Bedaŭrinde "biannual" iĝis iom senutila ĉar homoj ne konsentas ĉu ĝi signifas "ĉiudujara" aŭ "ĉiuduonjara" (la verŝajne vera originala signifo), kaj pluraj vortaroj efektive donas ambaŭ difinojn! Embarase mi ĵus eksciis ke mi longatempe konfuzis "biennial" kaj "biannual", do mispensis ke "biannual" signifas "ĉiudujara" (la lama difino). Simila ambigueco ekzistas pri "bimonthly" ("ĉiudumonata" aŭ ĉiuduonmonata?), sed periodaĵoj (kaj mi) uzas ĝin por signifi "ĉiudumonata" (verŝajne la originala signifo, do la mala senco de "biannual"). Tiaj aferoj pli agrablas en Esperanto!

Nawet nie wiem jak wytłumaczyć to po polsku...

(Post a new comment)


[info]ghewgill
2008-03-26 11:08 am UTC (link)
Words to avoid: inflammable, sanction, shelled, biannual.

I recall we had a lovely list of those.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

[info]goulo
2008-03-26 11:18 am UTC (link)
irregardless, unthaw!

(Reply to this)(Parent)
Ok, let's make this more complicated...
[info]elgrande
2008-03-26 11:12 am UTC (link)
The definition of "biannual" as meaning "every half year" surprises me. dictionary.com also gives "occuring twice a year". That makes sense to me because I find it hard to see how you can reinterpret the "bi-" to mean "half (whatever)" rather than "two (whatever)". Accordingly, "semiannual" should just be a specific case of "biannual": while the latter only indicates how often something occurs per year, the former also indicates after what interval of time the event occurs again. I don't know if this reflects actual usage, though, especially since dictionary.com also defines that meaning of "biannual" as "semiannual". But then again "semiannual" apparently has a wide meaning according to that dictionary, namely "occurring, done, or published every half year or twice a year".

(Reply to this)(Thread)
Re: Ok, let's make this more complicated...
[info]goulo
2008-03-26 11:18 am UTC (link)
I'm confused by your comment; are you implying that "every half year" is different from "occurring twice a year"? Admittedly "twice a year" could be something that happens twice every January and no other time in the year, while "every half year" would have to happen six months apart, so "occurring twice a year" is more general than "every half year". But I don't think that's what you're getting at, is it?

Google for all three words (biannual, semiannual, biennial) at once to get more info about the relation between them. :)

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)
Re: Ok, let's make this more complicated...
[info]elgrande
2008-03-26 11:51 am UTC (link)
"But I don't think that's what you're getting at, is it?"

It is.


"Admittedly "twice a year" could be something that happens twice every January and no other time in the year"

I think context matters quite a bit.

If an instruction says something should be checked "twice a year", it probably means every six months. If I say my siblings school reports twice a year, there probably doesn't have to be an interval of 6 months. If I say I use something very rarely, perhaps twice a year, then there is probably even less of an idea of a 6-month-interval. If someone regularly receives a voucher that allows them to go somewhere for free twice a year, I think it may well be that there is absolutely no implication of a six-month-interval and they may just as well go to that place twice in January. But you know what's so special about the IS, right? It's an Esperanto event that takes place twice a year, once in January and once in December. ;)

If my logic is correct, "semiannual" should more acceptable in the first and less acceptable in the last examples while "biannual" should be acceptable in all of them.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)
Re: Ok, let's make this more complicated...
[info]elgrande
2008-03-26 11:53 am UTC (link)
"If I say my siblings school reports twice a year,"

There's a "get" missing here.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)
Re: Ok, let's make this more complicated...
[info]goulo
2008-03-26 11:59 am UTC (link)
Or an apostrophe!

(Reply to this)(Parent)

Create an Account
Forgot your login?
Login w/ OpenID
English • Español • Deutsch • Русский…