Common word in Australia that Canadian tourist has never heard of

A Canadian tourist has had his mind blown once more after discovering a commonly used word in Australia.

A Canadian TikToker was left in shock after discovering the word ‘fortnight’ in an Australian calendar, while Aussies were surprised it wasn’t a universal word.

Josiah Hein, who is continually amazed by the differences between his home country and Australia, posted a video showing his latest discovery.

“Here in Australia, look at this – there are 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, seven days in a week,” Mr Hein said as he pointed to a board of time measurements.

When he gets to the word ‘fortnight’ however, he appears to be stumped by it.

“But look, they’ve got something called a fortnight here. Fourteen days in a fortnight. Have you heard this word before?” he asks.

@josiahhein What is a fortnite? #fortnight♬ original sound - Josiah Hein

Mr Hein later compares the word to something he expected to hear from the Harry Potter books, saying: “What is this, Harry Potter?”

In the comments, Hein clarified that back home they would simply say every two weeks and expressed disbelief that Australians say both fortnight and fortnightly.

The word fortnight used as a measure of time came from the Old English term fēowertīene niht which means ‘fourteen nights’.

This was used by the Anglo-Saxons as a way to measure the time between a full moon and a new moon. It used to be common in North America but was later phased out in the 1880s.

The word is commonly used in British English and countries that use it include Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Canadian traveller Josiah Hein shocked at the word fortnight. Picture: Josiah Hein/TikTok

The fact that it isn’t a commonly used word in other countries left many Australians in shock.

“Bro what? Who doesn’t have fortnight?” one person commented.

“Okay, we both learnt today that a fortnight in [Australia] is not universal across the world in all Western countries,” another person wrote.

Another added: “Wait there are places in the world where they don’t use the word ‘fortnight’.”

After Hein’s previous videos where he lost his mind at airport etiquette in Australia, others began to suspect that he’s just trolling Australians now.

“I’m convinced this entire account is a parody at this point,” one commented.

“Okay I’ve let your other videos slide in the past but this HAS to be satire,” another wrote.