Talk:Paily/@comment-25759635-20141213021844/@comment-184.75.209.210-20141214182100

^ You're right about the two terms, 6 months thing, but I believe we actually take it from the German "semester" originating in the early 19 century, whereas the Latin version is "semestris" meaning "six-monthly." Taking sex "six" and mensis "month."

But in American history you'll find that because farmers (some German I assume) couldn't send their sons to school during the summer, which were the most prosperous months, as they were needed for labor. They discontinued school year during the summer, making school 3 parts of the year not 4 (or as you say 2 terms of 6 months). In the U.S. you receive 3 report cards for each season (except summer) or each of the three terms. I think any American would have understood me using "semester" or if not "period" as they're also called because trimester is typically more linked with talking about pregnancy time length. Semester is used in America and Canada however inaccurate tradition hangs on. Although trimester would be more accurate we don't use that to describe school periods, usually (again) that's reserved for describing time in gestation periods aka pregnancy. It's funny though because most kids in America obviously aren't farming... So there's been a lot of talk about how summer breaks have been obsolete for a long time now, and yet they still endure, like "semester."

So honestly I think you're splitting hairs here, or nit-picking a bit, as my explanation was clear and probably sufficed. But whatevski.