Fortnight

The Word of the Day for April 9 is "fortnight."

fortnight: (noun) A period of fourteen consecutive days.

Synonyms: two weeks

Usage: Most major tennis tournaments last a fortnight.

Relevance to my life: Although I was taking enough medication to knock out an elephant, I can still remember the fortnight immediately after my son's death with crystal clarity. My recall of the intervening years is spotty, but nearly every hour of those 14 days is burned onto my memory.

This one was hard, not because it's a difficult word, but because it is such a completely British word. Perhaps it's common in Australia, New Zealand and Canada as well, but it is not at all the norm in the US. It's hard not to feel pretentiously Anglophilic using it, and I'm something of an Anglophile.

In honour of our sister tongue, here are a bunch of thoroughly British clips.




Do you speak English?
Damned foreigners!








Four Yorkshiremen
This could easily be Four (Crotchety Old) Yankees.








Eddy Izzard on the differences between British and American English
One question: is he wearing pajamas?








Britain's Got Baton Twirling
The Billy Elliotness of this clip always makes me tear up.