6.2. What do the names of the days of the week mean?
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This article is from the Calendars FAQ, by Claus Tondering claus@tondering.dk with numerous contributions by others.
6.2. What do the names of the days of the week mean?
An answer to this question is necessarily closely linked to the
language in question. Whereas most languages use the same names for
the months (with a few Slavonic languages as notable exceptions),
there is great variety in names that various languages use for the
days of the week. A few examples will be given here.
Except for the Sabbath, Jews simply number their week days.
A related method is partially used in Portuguese and Russian:
English Portuguese Russian Meaning of Russian name ------- ---------- ------- ----------------------- Monday segunda-feira ponedelnik After "do-nothing" Tuesday terca-feira vtornik Second Wednesday quarta-feira sreda Middle Thursday quinta-feira chetverg Fourth Friday sexta-feira pyatnitsa Fifth Saturday sabado subbota Sabbath Sunday domingo voskresenye Resurrection
Most Latin-based languages connect each day of the week with one of
the seven "planets" of the ancient times: Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus,
Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. French, for example, uses:
English French "Planet" ------- ------ -------- Monday lundi Moon Tuesday mardi Mars Wednesday mercredi Mercury Thursday jeudi Jupiter Friday vendredi Venus Saturday samedi Saturn Sunday dimanche (Sun)
The link with the sun has been broken in French, but Sunday was
called "dies solis" (day of the sun) in Latin.
It is interesting to note that also some Asiatic languages (for
example, Hindi, Japanese, and Korean) have a similar relationship
between the week days and the planets.
English has retained the original planets in the names for Saturday,
Sunday, and Monday. For the four other days, however, the names of
Anglo-Saxon or Nordic gods have replaced the Roman gods that gave
name to the planets. Thus, Tuesday is named after Tiw, Wednesday is
named after Woden, Thursday is named after Thor, and Friday is named
after Freya.
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