Origins of Weekday Names
| Day | Derivation |
| Sunday | First day of the week. Derived from the ... |
| Monday | Second day of the week. Derived from the ... |
| Tuesday | Third day of the week. Named for the Nor ... |
| Wednesday | Fourth day of the week. Named to honor O ... |
Where did the names of the weekdays originate?
Where did the names of the days of the week come from? The names originated with the ancient Romans, who used the Latin words for the Sun, the Moon, and the five known planets! Our English names also reflect the influence of the Anglo-Saxons (and other Germanic peoples). Learn all about the days of the week origins.
Where did the names of the days of the week come from?
The days of the week were named after Norse gods and giant objects in the sky. These names come to us originally from the Greeks and Romans, who named the days of the week after their gods. The Anglo-Saxons, who invaded Britain hundreds of years ago, adopted this idea but substituted their own gods.
Where do the Arabic names of weekdays come from?
The Arabic name for Friday (Jum’ah) can also refer to the whole week in some Arabic contexts. Friday or Al-Jum’ah was mentioned once in the Holy Qur’an and there is a whole chapter or Surah named Al-Jum’ah. Arabs used to name the day as “Aroubah عــَــروبــَــة“. 7) Saturday الــســبــت /Al-Sabt/:
How are the days of the week got their names?
- The Seven-Day Week and the Meaning of the Names
- How the Days Were Named
- Days of the Week Jigsaw Puzzle
What is the first day of the week named after?
Why are the days of the week named?
What is Venus' day?
What is the order of the seven days of the week?
Where did the name Planetary Week come from?
Is Monday a moon day?
See more
About this website
How did the weekdays get their names?
Roman gods become Nordic weekday names The Romans named the days of the week after the Sun and the Moon and five planets, which were also the names of their gods. The gods and planets were Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn.
Why are weekdays named after Norse gods?
The days of the week were named after Norse gods and giant objects in the sky. These names come to us originally from the Greeks and Romans, who named the days of the week after their gods. The Anglo-Saxons, who invaded Britain hundreds of years ago, adopted this idea but substituted their own gods.
Why is Friday named after Freya?
Naming Friday The English name Friday is derived from Old English and means “day of Frigg,” the Norse goddess of fertility and love, who is often perceived as the same deity as Freya.
Why is Thursday named after Thor?
The English word Thursday is named after the Norse god of thunder, Thor. Thursday means Thor's day in Old English. Thor is represented riding a chariot drawn by goats and wielding his hammer. In most languages with Latin origins, the day is named after the god and planet Jupiter.
Where Did the Names of the Days of the Week Come from?
Typically a day is 24 hours, or 1,440 minutes or 86,400 seconds. One day is divided into day time and night time, about 12 hours for each division. A week comprises seven days. Have you ever thought of where the term “day” came from? What
How the English Days of the Week Got Their Names
English speakers often take for granted the impact other languages have had on our own. The names of the days of the week, for example, owe much to the blend of cultures that influenced England over the years--Saxon Germany, Norman France, Roman Christianity, and Scandinavian.
How the Days of the Week Got Their Names
The days of the week were named after Norse gods and giant objects in the sky. These names come to us originally from the Greeks and Romans, who named the days of the week after their gods.
Origins of the Names of the Days of the Week: Latin and Other Languages ...
The days of the week were named by the Romans with the Latin words describing astronomical bodies. The Old Farmer's Almanac presents a table listing the names of the days of the week in five languages.
Origins of the Days of the Week – History Behind Their Names
We all know the names of the days of a week. Now, Let's know the origins of the 7 days names of the week, and why a week consisting of seven days.
Where did the name Wednesday come from?
For example, “Wednesday ” comes from Woden, the Anglo-Saxon king of the gods ; in Saxon, the name is “ Wodnesdaeg .” (Now you know why Wednesday is spelled that way!)
Where did the days of the week come from?
Where did the names of the days of the week come from? The names originated with the ancient Romans, who used the Latin words for the Sun, the Moon, and the five known planets! Our English names also reflect the influence of the Anglo-Saxons (and other Germanic peoples). Learn all about the days of the week origins.
What are the seven days of the week?
In naming the seven days of the week as checkpoints in time, the ancient Romans choose seven celestial bodies that could be seen with the naked eye: the Sun, the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn. For example, “Sunday” is the Sun’s day and “Monday” is the Moon’s day.
What is the name of Saturn's day?
sabato. (from the Latin for “Sabbath”) sábado. (from the Latin for “Sabbath”) Saeterndaeg. (Saturn’s day. Saturn was an ancient Roman god of fun and feasting.) If you enjoyed this article, check out some more calendar facts from the Almanac: Find out why the week has seven days.
What are the days of the week called?
The Southeast Asian tradition also uses the Hindu names of the days of the week. Hindu astrology adopted the concept of days under the regency of a planet under the term vāra, the days of the week being called āditya -, soma -, maṅgala -, budha -, guru-, śukra -, and śani -vāra. śukrá is a name of Venus (regarded as a son of Bhṛgu ); guru is here a title of Bṛhaspati, and hence of Jupiter; budha "Mercury" is regarded as a son of Soma, i.e. the Moon.
Why are the seven days of the week called the seven days of the week?
in many languages, the names given to the seven days of the week are derived from the names of the classical planets in Hellenistic astronomy, which were in turn named after contemporary deities, a system introduced by the Roman Empire during Late Antiquity. In some other languages, the days are named after corresponding deities ...
What is the week in Chinese?
In Standard Chinese, the week is referred to as the "Stellar Period" ( Chinese: 星期; pinyin: Xīngqī) or "Cycle" ( simplified Chinese: 周; traditional Chinese: 週; pinyin: Zhōu ). The modern Chinese names for the days of the week are based on a simple numerical sequence.
What languages were used in the Romance period?
Romance languages. Except for Modern Portuguese and Mirandese, the Romance languages preserved the Latin names, except for the names of Sunday, which was replaced by [dies] Dominicus (Dominica), i.e. "the Lord's Day ", and of Saturday, which was named for the Sabbath.
Why is Sunday called Sunday?
Sunday uses the Arabic name, which is based on numbering, because a Jewish language was not likely to adapt a name based on "Lord's Day" for Sunday.
What is the 7 day week?
The seven-day week was adopted in early Christianity from the Hebrew calendar, and gradually replaced the Roman nundinal cycle as the new religion spread. Sunday remained the first day of the week, being considered the Lord's Day, while the Jewish sabbath remained the seventh.
Why are the 7th day Sabbaths sanctified?
Seventh-day Sabbaths were sanctified for celebration and rest. After the week was adopted in early Christianity, Sunday remained the first day of the week, but also gradually displaced Saturday as the day of celebration and rest, being considered the Lord's Day .
What is the first day of the week?
The days of the week though were derived from Roman deities, with Saturday as the first day of the week. When the pagan Romans started worshiping the Sun more, the first day of the week became Sunday. Sunday means the “sun’s day,” which came from the Latin term “dies solis.”. The Latin translation of the day is Domenica, ...
What is the day called in Latin?
The Latin translation of the day is Domenica, whose root word was retained by the other Romance languages, thus, it is called Dimanche in French, Domingo is Spanish and Domenica in Italian, In Dutch, Sunday is translated as Zondag while it is Sonntag in German.
What is Wednesday in Sweden?
In Sweden, Tuesday is translated as Tisdag, Tirsdag in Danish, Dienstag in German and Dinsdag in Dutch. Wednesday honors Odin or Wodan. For the Romans, it is the day for their god, Mercury and called Wednesday “dies Mercurii.”. In French, Wednesday translates to Mercredi and it is Mercoledi in Italian.
What is Thursday in Spanish?
Miércoles is the Spanish translation for Wednesday and it is called Woensdag in Dutch and Mittwoch in German. Thursday is Thor’s day, and is called Torsdag in the Norse languages. The Romans called this day for Jupiter or Jove’s Day (dies Jovis). Jeudi is the French translation for Thursday.
What is Monday called in German?
In German, Monday is called Montag while Maandag is the Dutch translation for this day. Tuesday belongs to Tyr, a Norse god. However, for the Romans Tuesday was the day of their god of war, Mars and called the day “dies Martis.”. In Spanish, the day is called Martes, Martedi in Italian and Mardi in French.
What is the meaning of Monday?
Monday is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word, “monandæg,” which translates to the moon’s day, a day that is sacred to the moon goddess. In Spanish, Monday is called Lunes from the Spanish word for moon, Luna. The Spanish root word is retained in the Italian Lunedi and French Lundi.
How long was a day in ancient times?
Six hundred twenty million years ago, a day was estimated to have 21.9 hours. Today it has been calculated that a day on earth had increased in length due to the tides that are raised by the moon. The phenomenon slows down the rotation of the earth.
The Seven-Day Cure
If a month is (roughly) the amount of time it takes for the moon to complete a full cycle, then dividing each 28-day period into four equal chunks is rather convenient if you’re in the habit of observing the moon’s four distinct phases (new, full, and both quarter moons).
Weekday Origins
Monday, or the Moon’s day, was originally named dies Lunae in Latin. From this, we got lunes in Spanish and lundi in French. The English “Monday” derives its name from “moon,” as well as the Norse moon god Máni. The Roman version of a moon deity was Diana, goddess of the hunt and childbirth.
What is the first day of the week named after?
The first day of the week was named after the sun – dies Solis – day of the sun in Latin and later Sunnon-dagaz in old Germanic. It’s easy to see where the English word Sunday comes from here. It’s similarly easy to see where this weekday name originates too.
Why are the days of the week named?
The origins behind English weekday names. The English language days of the week are named after celestial bodies and mythological figures from history. A mish-mash of cultures and traditions have had an influence on the naming of the days and for those of us studying the English language they provide a fascinating insight into the way ...
What is Venus' day?
Friday. Venus is the Roman goddess of love and beauty , and in Latin her day was known as dies Veneris. We get the English name for Venus’ day from Frigg, the Norse goddess of love and the heavens, and possibly Fria, the Teutonic goddess of love and beauty. In Germanic we have Frije-dagaz, later becoming Friday in English.
What is the order of the seven days of the week?
The original order of the days, between the 1st and 3rd centuries, was Sun, Moon, Ares, Hermes, Zeus, Aphrodite, and Cronos.
Where did the name Planetary Week come from?
From Greece the planetary week names passed to the Romans, from Latin to other languages of southern and western Europe and to other languages later influenced by them.
Is Monday a moon day?
Monday is the moon day – dies Lunae in Latin, becoming Mon (an)dæg in Old English. Whereas most English days of the week retain their associations with the Roman gods, some were substituted for the names of the equivalent Germanic gods, because English is a Germanic language.
Overview
Days named after planets
Between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD, the Roman Empire gradually replaced the eight-day Roman nundinal cycle with the seven-day week. The earliest evidence for this new system is a Pompeiian graffito referring to 6 February (ante diem viii idus Februarias) of the year AD 60 as dies solis ("Sunday"). Another early witness is a reference to a lost treatise by Plutarch, written in about AD 100, which addressed the question of: "Why are the days named after the planets reckoned in a …
Numbered days of the week
The ISO prescribes Monday as the first day of the week with ISO-8601 for software date formats.
The Slavic, Baltic and Uralic languages (except Finnish and partially Estonian and Võro) adopted numbering but took Monday rather than Sunday as the "first day". This convention is also found in some Austronesian languages whose speaker…
See also
• Akan names of the seven-day week, known as Nawotwe
• Bahá'í calendar (section Weekdays)
• Calculating the day of the week
• Week
Notes
From Latin Dominicus (Dominica) or Greek Κυριακή (Kyriakí)
Holy Day and First-Day of the Week (Day of the Sun -> Light -> Resurrection -> Born again) (Christianity)
Resurrection (Christianity)
Bazaar Day
Further reading
• Brown, Cecil H. (1989). "Naming the days of the week: A cross-language study of lexical acculturation". Current Anthropology. 30 (4): 536–550. doi:10.1086/203782. JSTOR 2743391. S2CID 144153973.
• Falk, Michael (2004). "Astronomical Names for the Days of the Week". Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. 93: 122–133. arXiv:astro-ph/0307398. Bibcode:1999JRASC..93..122F. doi:10.1016/j.newast.2003.07.002. S2CID 118954190.