Re: fortnight interval support - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

From Alvaro Herrera
Subject Re: fortnight interval support
Date
Msg-id 20151103133157.GM6104@alvherre.pgsql
Whole thread Raw
In response to Re: fortnight interval support  (Michael Paquier <michael.paquier@gmail.com>)
Responses Re: fortnight interval support  (Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com>)
List pgsql-hackers
Michael Paquier wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 28, 2015 at 4:17 AM, Gavin Flower wrote:
> > You trying to get PostgreSQL banned in France???  :-)
> >
> > When I was learning French many years ago, I was told that the French
> > consider their fortnight to be 15 days!!!
> 
> Confirmed. I would translate fornight as 'quinzaine' to French.
> (please let's not add that btw).

I don't know what's the origin of the word "fortnight", in particular
whether it's always supposed to be exactly fourteen days, but the
equivalent to quizaine in Spanish ("quincena") is ambiguous enough that
I would have trouble making it part of intervals in Postgres.  It is
sometimes interpreted as "two weeks", other times as exactly fifteen
days, other times as "half a month".

(WRT the reference to Jane Austen and "Se'ennight" for "week", it occurs
to me that fortnight is a similar contraction for "forteen night".)

-- 
Álvaro Herrera                http://www.2ndQuadrant.com/
PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Remote DBA, Training & Services



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