# Antentwig **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 23, 2014, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antentwig/708013 "2014-12-23T15:21:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jj5406](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b487fb/32.png) [@jj5406](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jj5406)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antentwig/708013/1 "2014-12-23T15:21:20Z")
Antentwig is a term used by Mike Pesca on Slate’s “The Gist” podcast to refer to a 3-week period. He claims that it is an old word, like fortnight for a 2-week period, but one that is no longer in use. However, I cannot find any reference in the OED or anywhere on the great interwebs to this word (in any spelling I try) or to its origin, that does not reference Mike Pesca and The Gist. Can anyone confirm or point to a reference for this word - or is Pesca pulling a fast one? -J ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antentwig/708013/2 "2014-12-23T19:55:58Z")
Antentwig is a perfectly cromulent word. BOOM! First! ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antentwig/708013/3 "2014-12-23T20:00:49Z")
More seriously, it’s not on [Phrontistery](http://phrontistery.info/a.html), and if it’s really not in the OED either, the odds are pretty good he’s just making it up. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antentwig/708013/4 "2014-12-23T20:06:19Z")
Yeah, it’s not in the online OED either. I’d be curious if anyone has a possible etymology for it because based on my rudimentary knowledge of latin, greek and old english/germanic, I’m not seeing how it could mean 3 weeks. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antentwig/708013/5 "2014-12-23T20:29:42Z")
“Vingt-et-un” is French for ‘21.’ That’s the closest I can come up with. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antentwig/708013/6 "2014-12-23T20:59:48Z")
Well, if you search “books” on Google, rather than the web, you do get one hit on “Old English Grammar” by A. Campbell: > **[Old English Grammar](https://books.google.com/books?id=fYrEnQEACAAJ)** > > Old English Grammar Presumably, it occurs in the book somewhere. If it’s Old English, and is not the root of anything surviving into middle or modern English, the OED might not have it. And if it’s Old English, Pesca might have Romanized the orthography. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antentwig/708013/7 "2014-12-23T21:10:28Z")
Nothing referring to a three-week period appears in Jeffrey Kacirk’s _Forgotten English_, as far as I can tell from my copy. I thought that might have been a likely source, but no such luck. Kacirk has a daily email (which I don’t subscribe to), so maybe it was something he sent out at some point. Pesca seems like an agreeable guy on the radio. Maybe you can contact him and ask? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antentwig/708013/8 "2014-12-23T21:36:50Z")
Maybe we should contact the Lexicon Valley people and sick them on him. I assumed my own failure to find the word was due to my uncertainty about its spelling. [Dictionary.com](http://Dictionary.com), often a good place for a quick etymological summary, doesn’t do a very good job guessing what word I might mean in ordinary cases. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antentwig/708013/9 "2014-12-23T22:46:33Z")
> [@yabob](#): > > Well, if you search “books” on Google, rather than the web, you do get one hit on “Old English Grammar” by A. Campbell: > > [Old English Grammar - Alistair Campbell - Google Books](https://books.google.com/books?id=fYrEnQEACAAJ) > > Presumably, it occurs in the book somewhere. If it’s Old English, and is not the root of anything surviving into middle or modern English, the OED might not have it. And if it’s Old English, Pesca might have Romanized the orthography. Interesting find, but there’s no way to know how Campbell uses that word, or if it’s a typo, or in another language. There’s no hit in the 1983 revision of the same book, which is the only version still for sale. In fact, Google Books is the only online evidence I can find that the 1971 edition existed at all, and they don’t even have a picture of the cover. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antentwig/708013/10 "2014-12-23T23:27:54Z")
So maybe the ‘wig’ part at the end is the word week. Is there any word similar to ‘antent’ that would mean three? ---
**Author:** ![jj5406](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b487fb/32.png) [@jj5406](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jj5406)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antentwig/708013/11 "2014-12-24T14:36:54Z")
I like the way you guys roll! Thanks for checking your own fav sources and for the musings. FWIW I have emailed The Gist and asked about the origins of the word. If I hear anything I’ll let you know. Twitter would probably be a better way to reach Pesca, but I’m not a twitter user. If anyone else would care to send him a tweet, please be my guest. Cheers. -J ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antentwig/708013/12 "2014-12-24T15:48:59Z")
How often would anyone even need to refer to a 3 week period? ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antentwig/708013/13 "2014-12-24T22:42:43Z")
> [@yabob](#): > > Well, if you search “books” on Google, rather than the web, you do get one hit on “Old English Grammar” by A. Campbell: > > [Old English Grammar - Alistair Campbell - Google Books](https://books.google.com/books?id=fYrEnQEACAAJ) > > Presumably, it occurs in the book somewhere. You can’t presume this. In my experience, searches on Google Books will often return books which don’t contain the exact search term, but which are indirectly related to the search term. I can’t find any official documentation on exactly what method they use to determine this relatedness, though I strongly suspect that one way is for the book to be cited by a different book which does use the search term. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antentwig/708013/14 "2014-12-24T22:50:49Z")
Dmitri Borgmann’s _[Beyond Language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_Language)_ has an entry dealing with obscure time units. If there’s a word in English denoting a three-week period, there’s a very good chance that it’s in there. I don’t have a copy of the book any more, though someone who does might want to check. According to the book’s index, this should be covered in the resolution to Problem 114. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2014, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antentwig/708013/15 "2014-12-25T04:11:26Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > Dmitri Borgmann’s _[Beyond Language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_Language)_ has an entry dealing with obscure time units. If there’s a word in English denoting a three-week period, there’s a very good chance that it’s in there. I don’t have a copy of the book any more, though someone who does might want to check. According to the book’s index, this should be covered in the resolution to Problem 114. Just checked it. It doesn’t have a term for a three-week period. The closest is one for 20 days (uinal), but that’s a term from the Mayan calendar and not relevant to this question. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2014, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antentwig/708013/16 "2014-12-25T11:59:31Z")
The word looks Dutch to me. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2014, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antentwig/708013/17 "2014-12-25T13:54:55Z")
Some Googling reveals that the term “sesquifortnightly” has been used in print and on the Web to denote something occuring once every three weeks. So even if “antentwig” turns out to be bogus, you could always use “sesquifortnight” instead. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2014, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antentwig/708013/18 "2014-12-25T14:30:14Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > How often would anyone even need to refer to a 3 week period? Ha! I know someone who is currently undergoing antentwig chemo treatments. ---
**Author:** ![jj5406](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b487fb/32.png) [@jj5406](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jj5406)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antentwig/708013/19 "2015-01-05T17:53:48Z")
I did get a reply from Mike Pesca! Here is the email exchange with him… * * * Me: Mike, I like your antentwig segment, and I like the word. But apart from you, I can find no other reference to said word anywhere. I’m wondering if you can provide any more info on the origins of antentwig. Thanks. -J * * * Mike: Sure. I invented the word. * * * So there you have it. Greg Charles, you win. First answer, correct answer. -J ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2015, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antentwig/708013/20 "2015-01-06T01:18:10Z")
And it only took a fortnight from the OP to get an official answer. I guess the word isn’t very useful after all. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antentwig/708013.md?page=2)