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Nov 11, 2003

This week's theme
Archaic words

This week's words
clepe
sennight
anon
gainsay
hearken

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sennight

noun: A week.

[From Middle English, from Old English seofon nihta, from seofon (seven) + nihta, plural of niht (night).]

Fortnight is a cousin of today's word. Twice as long as a sennight, it's a compressed form of "fourteen night".

"CHORUS:
For now sad Charles unto the throne is come.
First his drunk grandam fell down in a fit and died,
And then a sennight later his
Mother Queen
Bit by a rabid Corgi ran naked through the streets,
Froth'd at the mouth and breath'd her last.
So Charles was crown'd; but now the angry mob
Demand that he be brought to Tyburn Tree -
Such is the curse on all odd-numbered Charles'."
Emily Sheffield; Jackdaw; The Guardian (London, UK); May 29; 1996.

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