Tell me more ×
English Language & Usage Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for linguists, etymologists, and serious English language enthusiasts. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote -1 down vote favorite

Is there an adjective that means "every other day"? I found "bidaily" but it seems to mean "twice a day", not "every second day" (not even both as "biweekly" does).

I'd need this word to very concisely describe a questionnaire by its issuing frequency.

share|improve this question
1  
What’s wrong with “every other day”? – tchrist Feb 23 at 20:40
1  
Or perhaps "on alternate days"? – Oliver Mason Feb 23 at 20:45
@tchrist I'd very much prefer a one-word solution. And "every-other-day" isn't much help. "The every-other-day questionnaire" ... it feels really cumbersome. And it doesn't fit in a small table cell :/ – Christian Feb 23 at 21:48
@Christian in that case I'd probably go for alternating questionnaire, but that might also not fit 100% in your context. If you need a short phrase, you will have to cut some corners somewhere. – Oliver Mason Feb 23 at 22:17

2 Answers

up vote 1 down vote accepted

There is no one word. The best you can do is "alternate day." An alternate day questionnaire is a questionnaire that appears every other day.

share|improve this answer
Sounds quite ok, despite being two words :) Thanks! – Christian Mar 6 at 21:33
up vote 0 down vote

There would be two sords: semidaily and bidaily. If you think one of them means twice a day, then you should think the other means every other day.

share|improve this answer
I don't think anything. en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bidaily That word is already hard to find in dictionaries. "Semidaily" is almost nonexistent outside Urban Dictionary. You don't seem very sure yourself if I might say so. – Christian Feb 23 at 21:52
1  
When you ask for nonexistent words, you may get strange answers. – GEdgar Feb 24 at 1:07
Oh, I thought I might get the answer "Sorry, there is no such word in the English language" which is not at all strange. If you read my question carefully, you might notice that I asked in fact for the very existence of such a word. I got downvoted nonetheless which I in turn find strange. – Christian Feb 24 at 13:44
Semi- is half, so semi-daily means on the half-days. The OED says it means twice a day, which is the same thing. – tchrist Mar 6 at 12:24
@tchrist Isn't that the whole "biannually" debate again? Yes, semiannually seems to mean "twice a year" for almost everyone. But biannually maddeningly means the same thing to many, while it means "every other year" for others. – Christian Mar 23 at 12:03

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.