Semi vs Bi

So...Help me settle a bet.

I Make my living as an economist in the bond market. So I get lots of questions from friends about bonds. It's funny how many of them think they're gonna make it rich wheelin and dealin junk bonds...Thats a tough nut to crack. But to my question. I had a buddy call me up yesterday, asking about a corporate bond he owns. He said "it pays a bi annual coupon". I corrected him and said "No, you mean it pays a semi annual coupon"....He seemed to think the two words were interchangeable. I said "technically" they CAN be the same but in the finance world we NEVER say "BI instead we say SEMI". Because BI can be confusing...

Just like a BIweekly newsletter comes out every 2 weeks not twice a week. Or a BImonthly magazine comes out every 2 months not twice a month. But to some people BI annually can mean twice a year and to some people it might mean every 2 years....that's why we dont use it in the fiance world, becasue its confusing.

But he continued to argue with me and said, "no, that's just stupid. If you said to someone, that an event happens bi annually. They would think it happened twice a year, not every 2 years"...So settle my bet for me. If you heard that an event happens bi annually, would you assume it happened twice a year or every 2 years?

Like I said both are "technically" correct becasue BI has two meanings....But I want to know what the average person would think.

Semi = twice, bi = every other. Thats what I was taught

Actually, I thought it was the other way around. "BI" means 'twice', "Semi" means 'sort-of' which means every two. But this can usually be understood by context.


I also get confused with the term "Next ___" I.E. Today is Thursday. Is next Saturday the day after tomorrow or the following week? I was taught that it's the following week, while "This" Saturday is the one in two days.

For the record, I KNOW its confusing, so I always get clarification.

Quote: Johnzimbo

Semi = twice, bi = every other. Thats what I was taught

I learned semi= half, bi= two.

Easy argument.

Ask your friend if America's bicentennial is held every 50 years or every 200 years. That will shut him up.

LOL. Good one.
Some people even think fortnightly means every four nights. And they will argue about it!

That is why industry standard terminology develops and should be used. Water Tank and Water Tower may be interchangeable in most circumstances, but on a crowded frequency with foreign trained pilots, one is standard English and one is not. Its the same thing when airliners are all trying to land. "Low Fuel" means absolutely nothing. "Minimum Fuel" means I need to be bumped up to near the head of the line. A pilot from a foreign culture may have some difficulty but he may also have no chance to ever repeat his mistake.

I've always felt that "this Friday", This Coming Friday and Next Friday are the same day. And if you mean the one after the next to occur don't say "next". I think this is the British English version too. Many Americans tend to insist that next means you skip the one that is about to take place and refer to the subsequent one. Thats why eye-doctors learn to never say "this" and "that" for lens settings, but say "A" and "B".

I googled biannual meeting and found there are a number of organizations that meet every two years. It seems to be widely known that bi=every two.

However, if I asked my friends, I think there would be some confusion

I say next Friday to mean the Friday after the one coming.

I agree on reflection it's not logical (next... the next one occurring, if I take the next bus, I'm not skipping the one that's coming down the road. If the bus is already here, getting the next one means the one that's due, I guess). But it's how I speak... the other way is "a week on Friday".

Midday is one I often confuse people with....

Bi is clearly "two", and semi "half". Bi-sexual is not interchangable with semi-sexual....

LOL@ my friend this is turning into a battle he doesn't want to lose......He just emailed me this link to prove the is right *shaking head*

http://data.grammarbook.com/blog/definitions/bi-vs-semi-weeklymonthlyannually/

Clearly....like I said to him.....I guess technically bi-annual can mean twice a year most people would not assume that...and that's why we never use that term to describe when a coupon is being paid...

Are you familiar with the Far Eastern board game Go? The playing pieces are available in two styles -- semiconvex and biconvex. Biconvex are domed on both sides; semiconvex are flat on one side so that they can be flipped over for analysis (described as "lens-shaped"). For whatever it's worth.

On a semi-related note...

Is a trimester (as in a portion of a pregnancy) defined as three months, or one third of the entire duration?

(Note: Yes I realize that time-wise it's the same...)

Quote: DJTeddyBear

On a semi-related note...

Is a trimester (as in a portion of a pregnancy) defined as three months, or one third of the entire duration?

(Note: Yes I realize that time-wise it's the same...)

well if you went to a college that used the trimester system(not very many do)......One trimester would be 1/3 of the school year....

Quote: boymimbo

Easy argument.

Ask your friend if America's bicentennial is held every 50 years or every 200 years. That will shut him up.

A bicentennial is celebrated only once. 2076 will be the US Tricentennial. I don't know what the 400th anniversary is called.

Quote: Nareed

A bicentennial is celebrated only once. 2076 will be the US Tricentennial. I don't know what the 400th anniversary is called.

Tercentennial is the preferred name, though I doubt it'll be the one in the press in 65 years. The 400 year anniversary is quadricentennial. I actually have this on the wall in my office - one of my customers celebrated their sesquicentennial (150 years) anniversary this summer so we printed the Wiki page with the names.

The lady who works for grammarbook.com says her dictionaries list biannual as having two meanings:

twice a year (semi-annual)
every two years (biennial)

Note the spelling difference for the unambiguous term. The conclusion of the discussion seems to be that biannual used to mean every two years, but that common usage has caused it to take on a 2nd, ambiguous meaning. It's not desirable, but it happened.

Quote: dwheatley

The lady who works for grammarbook.com says her dictionaries list biannual as having two meanings:

The lady and vert's friend should the read the comments following the entry. They resoundingly call the entry erroneous, as do truly authoritative sources.

Your buddy is wrong, I understand the confusion but when discussing bonds there is no such thing as Bi-annual. The Webster dictionary defines bi-weekly as possibly meaning both. As I see it, specific to bonds you win, in general maybe a push.

The average person would probably say both are right however those that are paid bi-weekly would argue in your favor.

My brain usually understands bi-annual as meaning twice a year (i.e., every 6 months) and biennial as meaning every two years, but depending on the context I can also understand bi-annual to mean every two years. Semi-annual, to me, means twice in one year but not necessarily at the halfway point within that year (i.e., in January and then again in September).

In NY we always said "next Friday" to indicate "not the Friday that is closest to today but the one after that". Southerners will say "Friday week" and it took me a long time before I fully understood that phrase. Just recently I asked someone when her birthday was because I knew it was coming up soon. Her answer was "Tomorrow week" and it took me almost 10 seconds to translate that in my head as meaning "A week from tomorrow."

Quote: rdw4potus

Tercentennial is the preferred name, though I doubt it'll be the one in the press in 65 years.

I've never heard that one. but I've heard the word "Tercentennary" used.

Leave the press alone, you wont' get more than a few pedants to say anything other than "tricentennial." I'd wager on it, if I could think of a way to collect :)