Fornigh

Part of speech: adverb

Definitions

1. The expression describes a situation that indicates a closeness to an upcoming event or condition while implying a near approach to a particular point in time or space
2. Refers to a time span approaching two weeks but not fully completing it
3. Used to describe a period just short of fourteen days

Etymology: Fornigh is a survivor of a once-common family of words meaning "almost." Its Old English ancestor, "fornēah," meant "very nearly" or "about," and it was built from the prefix "for-," which here intensifies the sense, plus "nigh," meaning "near." Over the centuries the word narrowed from a general sense of nearness into a fixed expression of time: "fornigh" now means "for two weeks," a fortnight's worth of days. The same pattern appears in other languages. German "beinah" and Dutch "bijna" both mean "almost," which shows that the underlying idea of closeness was shared across these tongues. English kept the time-measuring sense in a way its relatives did not, so the word that once meant "almost" now marks a precise span of days.