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That's because "next", and "this" refers not to the day but to the week.

It's the same in some latin languages as well and I think it makes sense, you are already naming the day with "Friday" if you are going to give some more information it should be about some other time measurement - in this case, the week - or it would just be superfluous information.

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But if it's Thursday, and you say "next Wednesday", you don't mean "in six days", you mean in thirteen.

No, I would mean six days, not 13. Guess it's ambiguous between different people but I always understood it like the GP explained.

How about "let's meet this Wednesday" then?

To me "this Wednesday" has already passed in your example and people don't normally make appointments for the past.

Not really, not in English and not in Spanish or Portuguese.

"Next Wednesday" means "Next week's Wednesday" in all cases. It's not ambiguous.

Huh, interesting. In Greek, we say "(this) Wednesday" (whichever one comes next), and "next Wednesday" (the one that comes after the next one). Weeks don't factor into it at all.

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