What's the story behind this word, and how did it end so ambiguous, while other languages differ? There's already "Bimestral"why does every dictionary still uses "once every two months" as an additional meaning to "Bimonthly" if there's already another word?
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1Human choices are rarely dictated by logic alone.– KillingTimeCommented Mar 27 at 18:46
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1 Answer
The prefix bi- refers to both “twice” and “every two”. As MW notes, one should make clear the exact meaning intended:
Many people are puzzled about bimonthly and biweekly, which are often ambiguous because they are formed from two different senses of bi-: "occurring every two" and "occurring two times." This ambiguity has been in existence for nearly a century and a half and cannot be eliminated by the dictionary. The chief difficulty is that many users of these words assume that others know exactly what they mean, and they do not bother to make their context clear. So if you need bimonthly or biweekly, you should leave some clues in your context to the sense of bi- you mean. And if you need the meaning "twice a," you can substitute semi- for bi-. Biannual and biennial are usually differentiated.
(Merriam Webster)
