History of Weekdays: Anglo-Saxon Version

[waht]

There is some pretty cool history behind weekdays:

The Anglo-Saxon version of weekdays:Sunday - Sun's day (Latin 'Solis')

Monday - Moon's day (Latin 'Lunae')

Tuesday - Tiw's day. Tiw was a one-handed god associated with single combat and pledges in Norse mythology and also attested prominently in wider Germanic paganism (Replaced Latin 'Martis' for Mars)

Wednesday - Wodan's day. Wotan the Norse God (Replaced latin 'Mercurii' for Mercury)

Thursday - Thor's day (Replaced Latin 'Jovis' for Jupiter)

Friday - Frigg's day. Frigg or Freya was a Norse Goddess. (Replaced Latin "Veneris" for Venus)

Saturday - Saturn's day (Stayed the same)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Week-day_names#Greco-Roman_tradition

 

[Dr Lots-o'watts]

French days still has mostly Latin-Roman roots (now planets):

Dimanche - Dominicus (Lord)

Lundi - Lune (Moon)

Mardi - Mars

Mercredi - Mercure (Mercury)

Jeudi - Jupiter

Vendredi - Venus

Samedi - Sabbat (Sabbath)

 

[Borek]

In Polish:

M: Poniedziałek - day after Niedziela (Sunday), something like Aftersunday

T: Wtorek - second day of the week (from "wtóry" - drugi, this word is almost not used in contemporary Polish)

W: Środa - middle day of the week (from "środek" - center)

T: Czwartek - fourth day (fourth in contemporary Polish is "czwarty", so no doubts here)

F: Piątek - fifth day (fifth is "piąty")

S: Sobota - named after Shabbat

S: Niedziela - Sunday is a day when you don't work, you don't have to do anything - "nie działać" means "don't act". Sure, "nie działać" is in Polish and word is much older, it is very similar in most Slavic languages, so the original root was present in proto-slavic language and must have been different from contemporary, but the idea was the same.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

I don't know what the Hebrew days of the week represent.
Sunday: the first day.
Monday: day two.
Tuesday: day three.
Wednesday: day four.
Thursday: day five.
Friday: day six.
Saturday: Sabbath.

Chinese day names are inscrutable (star period means week):
Sunday: star period sun.
Monday: star period one.
Tuesday: star period two.
Wednesday: star period three.
Thursday: star period four.
Friday: star period five.
Saturday: star six.

Japanese and Korean day names were influenced by western nomenclature. They originated in China where they are no longer used.
Sunday: Sun day
Monday: Moon day
Tuesday: Fire day
Wednesday: Water day
Thursay: Wood day
Friday: Gold day
Saturday: Earth day

Vietnamese:
Sunday: lord day.
Monday: day two.
Tuesday: day three.
Wednesday: day four.
Thursday: day five.
Friday: day six.
Saturday: day seven.

 

[Vagn]

There is some pretty cool history behind weekdays:

The Anglo-Saxon version of weekdays:Sunday - Sun's day (Latin 'Solis')

Monday - Moon's day (Latin 'Lunae')

Tuesday - Tiw's day. Tiw was a one-handed god associated with single combat and pledges in Norse mythology and also attested prominently in wider Germanic paganism (Replaced Latin 'Martis' for Mars)

Wednesday - Wodan's day. Wotan the Norse God (Replaced latin 'Mercurii' for Mercury)

Thursday - Thor's day (Replaced Latin 'Jovis' for Jupiter)

Friday - Frigg's day. Frigg or Freya was a Norse Goddess. (Replaced Latin "Veneris" for Venus)

Saturday - Saturn's day (Stayed the same)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Week-day_names#Greco-Roman_tradition

I think the other Germanic languages follow the same pattern as the English weekdays
English, apparently German and Dutch both do.

Listen
Monday Montag
Tuesday Dienstag
Wednesday Mittwoch (Formerly Wotanstag)
Thursday Donnerstag
Friday Freitag
Saturday Samstag
Sunday Sonntag

ENGLISH DUTCH
Monday maandag
Tuesday dinsdag
Wednesday woensdag
Thursday donderdag
Friday vrijdag
Saturday zaterdag
Sunday zondag

 

[Ben Niehoff]

The German word for Wednesday used to be Wotanstag. It was later changed to Mittwoch ("mid-week"). Presumably people were offended by the reference to Odin or something.

 

[NobodySpecial]

The German word for Wednesday used to be Wotanstag. It was later changed to Mittwoch ("mid-week"). Presumably people were offended by the reference to Odin or something.

I always wondered why German out of all the Germanic languages has such a euphemistic name for the chief god's day.
I assumed it got stamped on by the church at some point.

 

[Norman]

Thanks for posting this! Just last week I was idly wondering about the etymology of these as my 3 year old was talking with me about what day of the week it was. He really likes to think every day is Tuesday, and really likes to argue that it is not Saturday when it is... as far as I can tell anyway.

It is kind of funny given his argumentative nature about the days of the week that Tuesday seems to be his favorite.

 

[Jonathan Scott]

I like the Scandinavian name for Saturday, which in the Swedish spelling is lördag, and apparently means "bath-day".

 

[Mathnomalous]

Español:

1. Domingo
2. Lunes
3. Martes
4. Miercoles
5. Jueves
6. Viernes
7. Sabado

Same as French.

 

[lisab]

I like the Scandinavian name for Saturday, which in the Swedish spelling is lördag, and apparently means "bath-day".

The full translation is "bath day, whether you need it or not"

 

[nismaratwork]

Here's Old English, I'm guessing around late 10th century.

Old English
Sunday: sunnandæg: "day of the sun"
Monday: monan dæg: "day of the moon"
Tuesday: tiwesdæg "Tiw's (Tiu's) day" (this goes back nearly to proto saxon)
Wednesday: wodnesdæg "Woden's day"
Thursday: thunresdæg "thunder's day" (This predates Thor as meriting the day)
Friday: frigedæg "Freya's day"
Saturday: sæternes dæg "Saturn's day"And of course, Ancient Greek:

Sunday: hemera heli(o)u, "day of the sun"
Monday: hemera selenes "day of the moon"
Tuesday: hemera Areos "day of Ares"
Wednesday: hemera Hermu "day of Hermes"
Thursday: hemera Dios "day of 'The God' (probably Zeus)"
Friday: hemera Aphrodites "day of Aphrodite"
Saturday: hemera Khronu "day of Cronus"

Hindi it turns out just adopted the latin system in hindi of course, and further back you run into Egypt which has 10 day weeks.

 

[Andre]

Maybe I should point to the existence of a second formal language in the Netherlands, (west)- Frisian or Frysk

with the common etomological explanations it goes like this,

Snein
Moandei
Tiisdei
Woansdei
Tongersdei
Freed
Sneon (Saterje)

 

[nismaratwork]

Here's a little exotica... Haitian Creole!

dimanch Sunday
lendi Monday
madi Tuesday
mèkredi Wednesday
jedi Thursday
vandredi Friday
samdi Saturday

 

[Borek]

dimanch Sunday
lendi Monday
madi Tuesday
mèkredi Wednesday
jedi Thursday
vandredi Friday
samdi Saturday

Doesn't look more exotic than French txtspk.

 

[nismaratwork]

Doesn't look more exotic than French txtspk.

I was referring to the source more than the result... after all Haitian Creole is heavily influenced by French.

However, I will counter with the days of the week in Fon (gbe dialect) language which is the primary African contribution to Haitian Creole. This... is definitely exotic. (I can't find the name for saturday)


tenigbè Monday
guzangbè Tuesday
azangagbè Wednesday
nyonuzangbè Thursday
axosuzan Friday
vodungbè Sunday

 

[AlephZero]

Many traditions plagiarized them from Sanskrit:

Raviãra: (day of Sun)
Somavãra: (day of Moon)
Mañgalvã: (day of Mars)
Budhavãra: (day of Mercury)
Guruvãra: (day of Jupiter)
Sukravãra: (day of Venus)
Sanivãra: (day of Saturn)

But then classical Greek is only Sanskrit with poor spelling and worse grammar ...

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Many traditions plagiarized them from Sanskrit

But not, apparently, before Sankrit plagiarized them from Greek.

The Greco-Roman scheme of planetary names was also adopted into Hindu astrology during the 2nd century AD. Sanskrit attestations of the navagraha "nine astrological forces", seven of which are used for day names, date to the Yavanajataka "Sayings of the Greeks", a 150 AD translation of a 120 AD Greek Alexandrian text.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Week-day_names"

 

[Ben Niehoff]

Here's Old English, I'm guessing around late 10th century.

Old English
Sunday: sunnandæg: "day of the sun"
Monday: monan dæg: "day of the moon"
Tuesday: tiwesdæg "Tiw's (Tiu's) day" (this goes back nearly to proto saxon)
Wednesday: wodnesdæg "Woden's day"
Thursday: thunresdæg "thunder's day" (This predates Thor as meriting the day)
Friday: frigedæg "Freya's day"
Saturday: sæternes dæg "Saturn's day"

"Thor" and "thunder" are, etymologically, the same word (c.f. the German god Donner and Donnerstag). I suspect the pronunciation "Thor" is borrowed from the Old Norse "Thorr". Old Norse has a double 'r' in the nominative, which could conceivably have come from an 'n', 'd', or 'th' being assimilated into the nominative ending '-r'. (Probably NOT a 'th', though, considering other Old Norse words like "mathr" ("man")).

And of course, Ancient Greek:

Sunday: hemera heli(o)u, "day of the sun"
Monday: hemera selenes "day of the moon"
Tuesday: hemera Areos "day of Ares"
Wednesday: hemera Hermu "day of Hermes"
Thursday: hemera Dios "day of 'The God' (probably Zeus)"
Friday: hemera Aphrodites "day of Aphrodite"
Saturday: hemera Khronu "day of Cronus"

Hindi it turns out just adopted the latin system in hindi of course, and further back you run into Egypt which has 10 day weeks.

And again, the words "Zeus", "dios", and Latin "deus", "Jupiter" are all etymologically related (also Sanskrit "deva", of course). They are thought to come from PIE "*deiwos". "Jupiter" comes from PIE "*deiwos pHter", meaning "Sky Father".

 

[Dr Lots-o'watts]

...African contribution to Haitian Creole. This... is definitely exotic. (I can't find the name for saturday)...

How about Wolof ? It's a recognized language of Senegal, and for a while, I had the opportunity to overhear phone conversations in this language on a regular basis.

Sunday - Dibéer = ?
Monday - Altine = 2nd day
Tuesday - Talaata = 3rd day
Wednesday - Àllarba = 4th day
Thursday - Alxames = 5th day
Friday - Àjjuma = reunion day
Saturday - Gaawu = ?
Sunday - Dibéer = ?

 

[nismaratwork]

How about Wolof ? It's a recognized language of Senegal, and for a while, I had the opportunity to overhear phone conversations in this language on a regular basis.

Sunday - Dibéer = ?
Monday - Altine = 2nd day
Tuesday - Talaata = 3rd day
Wednesday - Àllarba = 4th day
Thursday - Alxames = 5th day
Friday - Àjjuma = reunion day
Saturday - Gaawu = ?
Sunday - Dibéer = ?

Wow, that is one funky language!

 

[jtbell]

Finnish is not an Indo-European language so its native vocabulary is completely "foreign" to a non-Finn (unless you happen to be Estonian). The days of the week are a rare exception, because they're actually borrowed from the old North Germanic ones:

Monday: maanantai
Tuesday: tiistai
Wednesday: keskiviikko (literally "middle of the week" in Finnish, like German "Mittwoch")
Thursday: torstai
Friday: perjantai (which apparently is actually related to "Friday" by way of a sound shift, because Finnish doesn't have the "f" sound)
Saturday: lauantai (like Swedish "lördag" or better, Old Norse "laugardagr", "bath day")
Sunday: sunnuntai

I can vouch for the Saturday-as-bath-day thing from personal experience. My mother's parents, who came from Finland, got together with other Ohio Finnish-Americans to form a summer-cottage colony on Lake Erie. When I was a kid, my parents and I often visited the cottage that my grandfather built there . The colony featured a communal sauna on the path down to the lake, with separate rooms for men and women, heated by a huge wood-burning oven. It was fired up once a week on... you guessed it... Saturday!

 

[nismaratwork]

Finnish is not an Indo-European language so its native vocabulary is completely "foreign" to a non-Finn (unless you happen to be Estonian). The days of the week are a rare exception, because they're actually borrowed from the old North Germanic ones:

Monday: maanantai
Tuesday: tiistai
Wednesday: keskiviikko (literally "middle of the week" in Finnish, like German "Mittwoch")
Thursday: torstai
Friday: perjantai (which apparently is actually related to "Friday" by way of a sound shift, because Finnish doesn't have the "f" sound)
Saturday: lauantai (like Swedish "lördag" or better, Old Norse "laugardagr", "bath day")
Sunday: sunnuntai

I can vouch for the Saturday-as-bath-day thing from personal experience. My mother's parents, who came from Finland, got together with other Ohio Finnish-Americans to form a summer-cottage colony on Lake Erie. When I was a kid, my parents and I often visited the cottage that my grandfather built there . The colony featured a communal sauna on the path down to the lake, with separate rooms for men and women, heated by a huge wood-burning oven. It was fired up once a week on... you guessed it... Saturday!

Interesting stuff! Hungarian (Magyar) is also not an Indo-European language... in fact it's nearest relation is... Finnish! It does borrow words from Latin, some Slavic countries, but not for all of the weekdays.

Hungarian isn't simple however, but there's a fantastic Wikipedia page: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vasárnap#Hungarian

There's a widget that says, "Hungarian Days of The Week", and you can navigate back and forth through the weekdays.

Anways, for those just wanting a list, no explanations:
Note: "nap" means "day". Hungarian is agglutinative, so nap is always present the way "day" is in tues-day wednes-day.

Sunday: vasárnap (lit. Market-Day)
Monday: hétfő (lit. Week-Head... head of the week)
Tuesday: kedd (lit. Kedd... derived from 'Ket' which is the name for the numeral '2')
Wednesday: szerda (Borrowed from 'Sreda' of the Croatian/Serbian neck of the woods)
Thursday: csütörtök (Borrowed from Serbo-Croatian 'četvrtak')
Friday: péntek (From the Slovene 'Petek')
Saturday: szombat (From Serbo-Croatian 'subota')

 

[Borek]

with separate rooms for men and women

That's the American part of the colony, I guess? From what I know in Finland they don't care about such things.

 

[nismaratwork]

That's the American part of the colony, I guess? From what I know in Finland they don't care about such things.

Perhaps it's a nod to the cultural sensibilities of their new home and likely guests? I wonder...

 

[waht]

In Polish:

M: Poniedziałek - day after Niedziela (Sunday), something like Aftersunday

That's like 'poprawiny' ?

 

[waht]

The planetary associating goes back to Classical Greece:

Greco-Roman tradition

The earliest attestation of a seven day week associated with heavenly luminaries are from Vettius Valens, an astrologer writing ca 170 AD in his Anthologiarum. The order was Sun, Moon, Ares, Hermes, Zeus, Aphrodite, and Cronos; the similarity of Cronos with Chronos was remarked as early as Ptolemy. From Greece the planetary week names passed to the Romans, and from Latin to other languages of southern and western Europe, and to other languages later influenced by them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Week-day_names#Greco-Roman_tradition

 

[Borek]

That's like 'poprawiny' ?

You mean po-prawiny like po-niedzieli? I am not sure, but I don't think so.

 

[waht]

You mean po-prawiny like po-niedzieli? I am not sure, but I don't think so.

In a two day long party, the second day is called 'po-prawiny' when everybody who stayed over still has hangover and goes for another round.

It's sort of like an after-party, I thought it would be similar to an after-Sunday.

 

[arildno]

Frigg was Odin's wife, and goddess of the hearth.

For those wondering about that..

 

[story645]

S: Niedziela - Sunday is a day when you don't work, you don't have to do anything - "nie działać" means "don't act". Sure, "nie działać" is in Polish and word is much older, it is very similar in most Slavic languages, so the original root was present in proto-slavic language and must have been different from contemporary, but the idea was the same.

Russian uses nedlya for week and is otherwise very similar to Polish:
S: voskrisenya - resurrection
M: ponedlya - after no work (sunday)
T: vtronik - dva is 2
W: sreda - middle
Th: chetverk - chetery is 4
F: pyatsnitsa - pyats is 5
Sat: subota - sabbath
src

 

[Borek]

Russian uses nedlya for week and is otherwise very similar to Polish:
S: voskrisenya - resurrection
M: ponedlya - after no work (sunday)
T: vtronik - dva is 2
W: sreda - middle
Th: chetverk - chetery is 4
F: pyatsnitsa - pyats is 5
Sat: subota - sabbath

I know enough Russian to confirm. But the way days are written in English makes my eyes watering.

 

[Yanick]

I know enough Russian to confirm. But the way days are written in English makes my eyes watering.

Russian Weekdays

Sunday - воскресенье (vos-kre-senye)
Monday - понедельник (po-ne-del-neek)
Tuesday - вторник (vtor-neek) - although dva is 2. I think this word probably stems from the form второй (vto-roy) which means 'second' (like first, second etc. not the unit of time).
Wednesday - среда (sre-da)
Thursday - четверг (chet-verg). Same as tuesday but probably more like четвертый (chet-vyor-tiy) which means 'fourth.'
Friday - пятница (pyat-nee-tsa)
Saturday - суббота (soo-bo-ta)

Better?

 

[BobG]

I thought Tsuesday was named after Tsu.

And Moonday was named after Moonbear.

If not, then they should be. We should have a day named after each of the PF sisters.

 

[story645]

I know enough Russian to confirm. But the way days are written in English makes my eyes watering.

:( Sorry my transliteration skills are so lousy.

Thanks Yanick!