The Friendly Friday Challenge is getting a revamp and co-host Amanda and I were working on the announcement. One of the changes is extending the challenge duration from one week to two weeks.
“How to say that?” I puzzled. “Twice weekly or bi-weekly?”
“Fortnightly” said Amanda.
That’s not a common word, I thought. It’s a word I know in theory but have never used. Fortnight, along with words like whilst and cheeky are not part of the Canadian or American lexicon.
I’m not the only one. Lady Gaga once asked her Twitter followers “What’s fortnight?” and it created a tidal (or is it twidal?) wave of responses. The most helpful being …
Fortnite is to gaming, what a can of Pringles is to dinner.
Big Ole Sneky Bois in a Mansuit (@ArcherHydra) October 15, 2019
The least helpful being …
The good news is it won’t take us two weeks to answer.
Dictionary.com@Dictionarycom October 15, 2019
According to Dictionary.com a “fortnight is ‘a period of two weeks,’ that is, ‘fourteen days and nights.’ The word derives from the Old English term fēowertyne niht, meaning ‘fourteen nights’.”
So the wording on the new frequency of the Friendly Friday Challenge is set. A new challenge topic will be issued every two weeks or fortnightly and you are invited to respond in any format. Photos, stories, recipes – anywhere your imagination takes you.
Updated instructions on how to participate can be found here.
We also have a new logo. Do you like it?
Are you ready for the challenge?
Stay tuned. I will be hosting the first challenge on January 29th!
The Sandy Chronicles 
Love the Logo! Looking forward to the new Friendly Friday:)
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It’ll be great to see you Moon … especially now with the new two week durateion, you’ll have lots of time! No more Thursday PM panic 🙂
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hahhahahahahahhaha!!!!
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sounds great!
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Looking forward to seeing you in the Challenge Tanja 🙂
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Thanks
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I never knew that ‘fortnight’ isn’t commonly used in other English-speaking countries! Here in the UK it’s as normal as referring to a week or a month – people take a fortnight off work for a holiday, plan to do things once a fortnight or fortnightly (like this challenge), promise to see each other ‘in a fortnight’ etc. etc.
Looking forward to the new challenge format 🙂
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I think someone wanted to clarify old english phrases, came up with new ones which became more confusing.
Sennight became one week; fornight became two weeks; fornightly became twice weekly which became bi-weekly and then bi-monthly and then …
Bi-monthly in payrolls meant twice every month. In which case, bi-weekly must mean twice every week ….
aaand we’re back to my conversation with Amanda 🙂
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Bi weekly would mean twice weekly which I would interpret as two times a week.
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My husband being a stickler, looked it up. The dictionaries say that Bi-weekly can been Both: once very two weeks or twice a week. I’d thought bi-monthly was more consistent, but it’s also the same : twice a month or every two months. At least they’re consistently inconsistent!
eg link to Merriam Webster https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/biweekly
Fortnightly is the most explicit.
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Well there you go! The Dictionary doesn’t even differentiate! Now we know!
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It’s odd that we use fortnight here but sennight has dropped out of use. Or maybe not so odd – ‘sennight’ is much clumsier to say than ‘week’ whereas ‘fortnight’ is (slightly) shorter than ‘two weeks’ 🙂
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You will help to re-popularize the word “fortnightly”!
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Wouldn’t that be funny 🙂
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Absolutely love the logo. Very professional looking!
May I add, without being cheeky (!!!) that the word fortnight is taught in school for EFL learners!! So as far as France is concerned – actually, I never “met” any French bloggers in our challenges community – you should be alright!
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But that’s because its all English people teaching you EFL 🙂
Glad you liked the new logo. Amanda & I had fun coming up with it.
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Actually they’re French 🤣😂🤣
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Well done, Sandy! I had to laugh at the Lady Gaga response. I thought about the name of that game during our discussion on the use of the word. Coincidentally, I talk a little about misunderstood wording in my latest post, but an altogether different context. Have fun next Friday with the challenge!
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I saw that and immediately thought … we’re beginning to think the same!
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That seems to happen a bit with us, Sandy! Great minds think alike – so they say! Lol!
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