I have some friends who work in New York, and a couple of years ago, they received a notice

that said they were going to be paid bi-weekly from now on.

The problem was that nobody could tell what bi-weekly meant, and their human resources

department reported being inundated with calls from confused employees.

The prefixes bi and semi are different.

Semi always means half.

You can remember that by remembering, semi-sweet chocolate is only half sweet, and semi-annual

sales happen twice a year.

But bi can mean both two and twice.

Bifocals have two lenses, and the bicentennial happens after two hundred years.

But a bi-annual event happens twice a year.

A listener named Eric pointed out that these terms are relatively set in the mortgage

industry.

A bi-monthly payment is paid two times a month.

But a bi-weekly payment is made every two weeks, not two times a week as you might presume

if you are trying to adhere to just one meaning for the prefix bi.

The Merriam Webster website explains that the quote, ambiguity has been in existence

for nearly a century and a half, unquote.

How frustrating!

At first glance then, knowing the meaning of the prefix doesn't help.

Does a bi-weekly paycheck come every two weeks, or twice a month?

Or twice a week as a hopeful person may wonder?

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