Wednesday, January 26, 2005

 

(Semi-)Random thought









I had a random thought on the train this morning: What if there was nuclear apocolypse or some other large-scale disaster and the only people left alive were myself and others like me who don't understand the difference between bi-annual and semi-annual?

It's just a thought.






Comments:
Hmm.... I guess you'd have a lot of overdue bills. But the upside would be that there would be no telemarketers to harrass you!
 
To complicate matters further, it seems that biannual and semiannual are generally accepted to have interchangeable definitions, since apparently most english speakers forgot long ago that biannual means every other year and semiannual means twice per year.

The only word which clearly translates as every other year is "biennial," which most people don't even understand.

The moral of the story is: for the definition of an english word to be stand the test of time, it must be understood by as few people as possible.

--Josh
 
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