Word of the Day from Dictionary.com

Happy Friday to you! Today’s Dictionary.com Word of the Day is “Fortnight”. Though not a word commonly used here in the U.S. it is one of those lovely old English words that is good to keep in one’s poetry vocabulary data bank. How much more fluid it is to say a fortnight rather than fourteen days, two weeks or bi-weekly. A bit of history below and then a few haiku for you. Have a great weekend!

Origin of Fortnight:

From Wikipedia: A fortnight is a unit of time equal to 14 days (2 weeks). The word derives from the Old English: fēowertyne niht, meaning “fourteen nights”.

From the Oxford Dictionary:  Although an Old English word, night comes ultimately from the same root as Latin nox, the source of equinox (Late Middle English) and nocturnal (Late Middle English). Fortnight (Old English) is an Old English contraction of ‘fourteen nights’, and reflects an ancient Germanic custom of reckoning time by nights rather than days.

Fortnight – Friday’s Word of the Day Haiku

1-
Fourteen days and nights
‘Tis a fortnight I am told…
I call it two weeks.

2-
Radiant Luna wanes
a full fortnight, fair to gloom
from madness to muse.

kat ~ 11 December 2015

Haiku – Finding Balance

Most health plans include
Eating a balanced diet…
chocolate optional.

To achieve balance
One must always choose between
The wants and the needs.

A powerful word,
If it is balance you seek,
Practice saying, “No.”

kat ~ 8 November 2015

This Haiku trio is in response to HaikuHorizon’s Weekly Challenge. The prompt is “Balance”. If you’d like to see more Haiku or enter your own, click HERE.