Related to a five-year period

[Outspan]

Hello,

I'm not a native speaker and I'm looking for a concise, elegant way of expressing the concept of "related to a five-year period" and "related to a twenty-year pariod" (such as in "five-year goals" and "twenty-year goals").

I know that "lustrum" refers to a five-year period, but I don't know whether the term is in common usage. If so, one option could be "lustral", and likewise "bidecennial". Are there better alternatives? Would you say "five-year" and "twenty-year" are preferable?

(Weekly goals, monthly goals, yearly goals, ?? goals, ?? goals)

Thanks

[Iain Archer]

Outspan wrote on Sun, 7 Apr 2013 at 03:32:01 GMT

>Hello,
>
>I'm not a native speaker and I'm looking for a concise, elegant way of
>expressing the concept of "related to a five-year period" and "related
>to a twenty-year pariod" (such as in "five-year goals" and "twenty-year
>goals").
>
>I know that "lustrum" refers to a five-year period, but I don't know
>whether the term is in common usage. If so, one option could be
>"lustral", and likewise "bidecennial". Are there better alternatives?
>Would you say "five-year" and "twenty-year" are preferable?

I would keep clear of any specialised period-name word, unless it was
already established in a particular context. For example, I remember
departments being subject to "quinquennial review" in the last place I
worked in, but I wouldn't use that word to speak of any five-year period
in general. "Lustral" I didn't even know.
--
Iain Archer

[James Hogg]

If five-year plans were good enough for Stalin, they're good enough for me.

--
James

[Peter Duncanson [BrE]]

I'm aware of "lustrum", but I would never use it.

I've never met "lustral". My immediate interpretation of it would be as
a synonym of "lustrous": shining. That would lead to the idea that a
"lustral" period of time was one during which things were actually or
figuratively shining", similar to a "golden age".


--
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.usage.english)

[Cheryl]

Except for a few special cases (biennial, centennial), I'd stick to
5-year plans and ten-year plans rather than terms that probably wouldn't
be understood by most people. I don't think I've ever heard 'lustrum',
'lustral' or 'bidecennial'.

--
Cheryl

[Athel Cornish-Bowden]

On 2013-04-07 10:32:01 +0000, Outspan said:

> Hello,
>
> I'm not a native speaker and I'm looking for a concise, elegant way of
> expressing the concept of "related to a five-year period" and "related
> to a twenty-year pariod" (such as in "five-year goals" and "twenty-year
> goals").
>
> I know that "lustrum" refers to a five-year period, but I don't know
> whether the term is in common usage.

No. It isn't, and it won't be understood by most people. In the days
when university budgets in the UK were for 5 years the word used was
"quinquennium", with adjective "quinquennial".

I can't think of any equivalent words for 20 years -- probably because
nothing much is defined for 20 years.

> If so, one option could be "lustral", and likewise "bidecennial". Are
> there better alternatives? Would you say "five-year" and "twenty-year"
> are preferable?
>
> (Weekly goals, monthly goals, yearly goals, ?? goals, ?? goals)
>
> Thanks

--
athel

[Don Phillipson]

"Outspan" <borghi...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:534b9a3d-506d-4b7e...@googlegroups.com...

<<
I'm not a native speaker and I'm looking for a concise, elegant way of
expressing the concept of "related to a five-year period" and "related to a
twenty-year pariod" (such as in "five-year goals" and "twenty-year goals").

I know that "lustrum" refers to a five-year period, but I don't know whether
the term is in common usage.
>>

These terms are usually relative to particular political
cultures. Just as the Romans reckoned periods of lustra,
Americans cite the NNth Congress and Canadians sometimes
the NNth Parliament, but neither is an everyday term, albeit
normal in technical discussion of legislative procedures.
Your proposed readership may recognize an appropriate
term -- or may not.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

[John Dean]

"James Hogg" <Jas....@gOUTmail.com> wrote in message
news:kjrkcc$rbo$1...@dont-email.me...

>> Outspan wrote on Sun, 7 Apr 2013 at 03:32:01 GMT
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> I'm not a native speaker and I'm looking for a concise, elegant way of
>>> expressing the concept of "related to a five-year period" and "related
>>> to a twenty-year pariod" (such as in "five-year goals" and "twenty-year
>>> goals").
>>>
>

> If five-year plans were good enough for Stalin, they're good enough for
> me.
>

Indeed. And his final 5-year plan is within 3 years of completion. Hurrah!

--
John Dean

[Curlytop]

Cheryl set the following eddies spiralling through the space-time continuum:

> Except for a few special cases (biennial, centennial), I'd stick to
> 5-year plans and ten-year plans rather than terms that probably wouldn't
> be understood by most people. I don't think I've ever heard 'lustrum',
> 'lustral' or 'bidecennial'.

Never heard of them myself. "Quinquennial" is reasonably easy to decipher,
but if I didn't know the context I would misinterpret "bidecennial" to
mean "twice every ten years" (not necessarily the same as "quinquennial")
rather than "every twenty years".
--
ξ: ) Proud to be curly

Interchange the alphabetic letter groups to reply

[R H Draney]

Athel Cornish-Bowden filted:

>
>I can't think of any equivalent words for 20 years -- probably because
>nothing much is defined for 20 years.

One such term comes to mind, as it did on the way to Gettysburg and was hastily
scribbled on an envelope....r


--
Me? Sarcastic?
Yeah, right.

[micky]

I was with you when I read this post, even though I couldn't answer
the questions. But after reading all the answers so far, I think
maybe you've gotten caught up in the desire to find long words for
simple things. As if academic writing had to use words that only
specialists know. Who knows -- not me -- maybe many thesis advisors
and publishers prefer such langugage. I majoried in math, where no
thesis was required for a BS degree, so I don't know.

Even if people here could find you a word that 10% of the population
knows, the other 90% still would have to work to understand it. Or
you could explain it nicely I guess at the start. But that still
leaves problems when paragraphs are excerpted for quoting.

[Mike L]

On Sun, 7 Apr 2013 13:50:13 +0200, Athel Cornish-Bowden
<acor...@imm.cnrs.fr> wrote:

>On 2013-04-07 10:32:01 +0000, Outspan said:
>
>> Hello,
>>
>> I'm not a native speaker and I'm looking for a concise, elegant way of
>> expressing the concept of "related to a five-year period" and "related
>> to a twenty-year pariod" (such as in "five-year goals" and "twenty-year
>> goals").
>>
>> I know that "lustrum" refers to a five-year period, but I don't know
>> whether the term is in common usage.
>
>No. It isn't, and it won't be understood by most people. In the days
>when university budgets in the UK were for 5 years the word used was
>"quinquennium", with adjective "quinquennial".
>
>I can't think of any equivalent words for 20 years -- probably because
>nothing much is defined for 20 years.

I returned to first principles, guessed, and find OED has a single
example of the rare but deducible "vigintennial":

<1921 Glasgow Herald 29 Jan. 13/3 Their [sc. the planets']
vigintennial conjunction is due a few months hence.>

I'd only use it for fun. Plain English is usually best.

>
>> If so, one option could be "lustral", and likewise "bidecennial". Are
>> there better alternatives? Would you say "five-year" and "twenty-year"
>> are preferable?
>>
>> (Weekly goals, monthly goals, yearly goals, ?? goals, ?? goals)
>>
>> Thanks

--

Mike.

[Peter Moylan]

On 07/04/13 21:30, Cheryl wrote:
> On 07/04/2013 8:02 AM, Outspan wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> I'm not a native speaker and I'm looking for a concise, elegant way of
>> expressing the concept of "related to a five-year period" and "related
>> to a twenty-year pariod" (such as in "five-year goals" and
>> "twenty-year goals").
>>
>> I know that "lustrum" refers to a five-year period, but I don't know
>> whether the term is in common usage. If so, one option could be
>> "lustral", and likewise "bidecennial". Are there better alternatives?
>> Would you say "five-year" and "twenty-year" are preferable?
>>
>> (Weekly goals, monthly goals, yearly goals, ?? goals, ?? goals)
>

> Except for a few special cases (biennial, centennial), I'd stick to
> 5-year plans and ten-year plans rather than terms that probably wouldn't
> be understood by most people. I don't think I've ever heard 'lustrum',
> 'lustral' or 'bidecennial'.

Even biennial is suspect. About half the population will tell you that
it means twice a year, and the other half will say that it means once
every two years. And the third half will say that they've never heard of
the word.

--
Peter Moylan, Newcastle, NSW, Australia. http://www.pmoylan.org
For an e-mail address, see my web page.

[Peter Moylan]

On 08/04/13 06:05, R H Draney wrote:
> Athel Cornish-Bowden filted:
>>
>> I can't think of any equivalent words for 20 years -- probably because
>> nothing much is defined for 20 years.
>
> One such term comes to mind, as it did on the way to Gettysburg and was hastily
> scribbled on an envelope....r

You've scored.