A Popular Saying

[KillerGremlin]

In America, people like to say "what are you doing next weekend."

This leads to much confusion for me.

Webster defines next as:
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

Main Entry: next
Pronunciation: 'nekst
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English nIehst, superlative of nEah nigh -- more at NIGH

immediately adjacent (as in place, rank, or time)

By this definition, next weekend should be referring to the nearest weekend, right?

Apparently not, since for many people "next weekend" seems to mean the weekend AFTER the upcoming weekend. But this makes very little sense. For example, if you are standing in line at the store, and the clerk says, "NEXT customer!" That DOES NOT mean that the clerk wants the customer behind the first customer waiting in line. The clerk wants the next customer, meaning the customer nearest to the customer he is currently helping.

So here is where context comes into play. If I said:

(1)Next weekend I am going to the store.
vs.
(2)This weekend I am going to sit around and masturbate. But next weekend, I will be going to the store.

In example (1), the adjacent weekend would be the immediate weekend. In example (2), there is a situation of X and Y, where X is me masturbating, and Y is the adjacent and following weekend where I will go to the store. In the context of example (2), "next weekend" would be referring to the following weekend.

Too add to the confusion, we have off-the-books semantics. On Thursday, you're more like to say:
(1)This weekend I am going to masturbate.
vs.
(2)Next weekend I am going to masturbate.

The reason (1) makes more sense is because Thursday is after hump day, and for most Americans it is the pre-eve to the eve of the weekend. But regardless of semantics, example (2) is still technically only correct if it is referring to the adjacent weekend. Or in this case, the upcoming weekend! I tend to follow this off-the-books approach. I do clarify though. If it is Thursday I will say, "Next weekend I am masturbating. But this weekend...eh."

Oh! It is a mind-boggling disaster, let me tell you. And it leads to me constantly having to clarify with questions like, "wait, you mean this weekend or the following weekend?"

Anyway, I figured I'd put this expression up to the test and see what popular meaning wins out.

[BreakABone]

I'm going go with option 3. From Sun-Wedn, when I say next weekend it means the following weekend.

From Thurs afternoon to Sunday, it refers to the FOLLOWING week if that makes sense.

[Typhoid]

I consider "Next Weekend" meaning the weekend after 'This Weekend'.


Next Weekend is the weekend after this weekend. It is 'the next weekend after the upcoming weekend'.


Weekend weekend weekend.


On the string of 'popular sayings';

I dislike when people say "I could care less". Caring less is a good thing. It means there is a level of care there in the first place. If you 'Can't care less', it is because minimum care has already been reached.

And I won't take that "Well when people say 'I could care less' they're being sarcastic" crap. No they're not. They're just dumb.

[Vampyr]

Option 3.

After Wednesday, if I want to refer to the nearest upcoming weekend, I say "this weekend"

[The Germanator]

For me, the upcoming weekend is always "this weekend" no matter what day it is. Obviously if it's already Thursday or Friday, it'll be more like "what are you doing tomorrow or Saturday" rather than mentioning anything else. So, this weekend starts on May 21st and next weekend is May 28th. That's always how it has made sense to me.

[KillerGremlin]

I'm glad to see that the ambiguous category is winning. :p

We need to put together a PSA or something and get this across the nation to clarify because this is a confusing topic, fo sho.

[ZebraRampage]

I've experienced the confusion in this as well. I went for the third option, because sometimes when the weekend is just ending, I refer to the following weekend as the next weekend. Though, mostly I refer to next weekend as the weekend after the upcoming weekend.

[Typhoid]

I was having a shower today and for some reason thinking about what was said in the first post about being in line at a store where "Next customer" means the next person in line, and not the person behind them.

So I was thinking...

"Next Customer" means the second in the line. If someone calls "Next customer", it is because the current customer (customer 1) is now finished, and customer 2 (being the next customer after customer 1) is now the current customer. Moving everyone up 1 in the customer rotation.

Which means "Next Customer" does not mean 'current', or 'third', it always denotes the second customer. If they are talking about the customer they are currently helping, they would never say "I am helping the next customer, and I need a price check" - because that customer is the current customer. The next customer is the customer behind the current one.

Thusly also making [with this comparison] "Next Weekend" the weekend after the upcoming, or current weekend, and never the closest weekend.

:ohreilly: