Days of the Week

So we now finish up the days of the week, and the one thing I want you to take away from the past week is the Latin names for the days of the week. The moment calendar used today (the Gregorian Calendar) was a revision of the Julian Calendar which was based on the old Roman calendar. What this calendar gave us was the 7-day week. And the ancient Romans also thought that there were 7 celestial bodies orbiting around the Earth: the Moon, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, which also happen to be what the Romans named the days of the week after.

Sunday

Sunday. Depending on where you live, the first day or the last day of the week. Obviously, you can easily see that Sunday is named after the Sun. Let's look at Sunday in other languages.

French: dimanche
Spanish: domingo
Italian: domenica
German: Sonntag
Latin: dies Solis

German and Latin are also named after the Sun. What about the other romance languages? Those are actually derived from the Latin for Lord, dominicus. When Christianity became the prevalent religion, Sunday was referred to as the Lord's Day, hence the root for the Romance languages.

Saturday

It's Saturday! And you know that this means we'll look at Saturday in other languages.

French: samedi
Italian: Sabato
Spanish: Sabado
German: Samstag
Latin: dies Saturni

English and Latin have the same root, the Roman god Saturn, while the others refer to the day of Sabbath, which has always been Saturday. East Germans sometimes use Sonnabend, which literally means Sunday Eve.

Friday

Friday, the best day of the week, if you ask me.


Let's see what Friday is in other languages.


French: Vendredi
Italian: Venerdi
Spanish: viernes
German: Freitag
Latin: dies Veneris


All the Romance translations are based on the Latin which translates to "day of Venus". What is the Germanic equivalent of Venus? Frigg (or Friya), the wife of Odin, who was also the goddess of love.

Thursday

Thursday, the fourth day of the week or the fifth, depending on whether or not your week starts on Monday or on Sunday.


Let's look at Thursday in other languages:


French: jeudi
Italian: giovedi
Spanish: jueves

German: Donnerstag
Latin: dies Iovis


Looking at the Romance languages, they are all named after Jupiter, the supreme Roman god. He is also the god of thunder which leads to ... Thor in old Norse mythology. Yes, Thor was not the supreme Norse god, that was Oden, but because he was also the god of thunder, that's where we got Thursday. Donnerstag is also named after the Germanic Thor.

Wednesday

Wednesday in other languages:


French: mercredi
Spanish: miercoles
Italian: mercoledi
German: Mittwoch (literally, midweek)
Latin: dies Mercurii


Romance languages are obviously named after Mercury.


English comes from Odin or Woden (Germanic god similar to Mercury).


German Mittwoch used to be Wodenstag.

Tuesday

Tuesday in other languages:


French - mardi
Spanish - martes
Italian - martedi
German - Dienstag
Latin - dies Martis


As you can see, all the Romance languages are named after Mars, the Roman god of war and the fourth planet in the solar system. However, English and German are different. Who or what are they named after?


In English, Tuesday is named after the Norse god Tyr, who is the Norse god of combat. So in a way, Tuesday is named after the Roman god Mars, but with a Norse twist.


In German, there is some question that it may be named after Thingus, a Latinized version of a German god who may or may not be the same as Tiw or Tyr in Norse mythology.

Monday

This post will be the first of a week long series of the history behind the names of the days of the week. Today, we will start with Monday.


Monday in some other languages:
French - lundi
Spanish - lunes
German - Montag
Latin - dies Lunae
Italian - Lunedi


What do these all have in common? Well, for one, French, Spanish, and Italian are all Romance languages (evolved from Latin), so all three look similar to the Latin word. German and English are also very similar because English is a Germanic language.


The thing that they all have in common is that they all roughly mean the same thing: day of the Moon. Monday is named after the Moon. And we will see as we go on, that most days of the week are named after celestial bodies (or something related to a celestial body).