so in romanian would be:
Luni (Monday) – from “lună” (moon)
Marți (Tuesday) – from “Marte” (Mars)
Miercuri (Wednesday) – from “Mercur” (Mercury)
Joi (Thursday) – from “Jupiter” or *Jovis,* the genitive form in latin
Vineri (Friday) – it came to this form from *Veneris,* which is the genitive of *Venus* in Latin
Sâmbătă (Saturday) – from *Sambati dies* (latin for *ziua sabatului* or sabbath day)
Duminică (Sunday) – it’s ***origin*** is from *domus* in latin, which translates something to “imposing/impressive house”. It ended to *Dominus* (owner, or lord) and ended up in romanian as *Dumnezeu (God)*
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*Fellow romanians, I have taken the source form* [*dexonline.ro*](https://dexonline.ro) *in the articles section of each word. If you want me to edit, please say so.*
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In Spanish it is exactly the same, after all, both are Romance languages. Obviously in Spanish writing and pronunciation are different, but very similar (lunes, martes, miércoles, jueves, sábado, domingo).
Monday = Second (Deftera)
Tuesday = Third (Triti)
Wednesday = Fourth (Tetarti)
Thursday = Fifth (Pempti)
Friday = Production (Paraskevi)
Saturday = Sabbath (Savvato)
Sunday = Lord’s Day (Kyriaki)
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Since the week officially starts on Sunday, it makes sense that Monday is called second. And yes, Friday is literally called production in greek.
A combination of Norse/Germanic gods, the sun and moon, and one Roman god.
Monday – the moon
Tuesday – Tyr’s (Norse god)
Wednesday – Odin/Woden
Thursday – Thor
Friday – Frigg
Saturday – Saturn
Sunday – the Sun
(Monday) Måndag – Månens dag – The moons day
(Tuesday) Tisdag – Tyrs dag – Tyrs day (Tyr is a god in norse mythology)
(Wednesday) Onsdag – Odens dag – Odins Day (Odin is a god in norse mythology)
(Thursday) Torsdag – Tors Dag – Thors Day (Thor is a god in norse mythology)
(Friday) Fredag – Frejas dag – Freyjas day (Freyja is a god in Norse mythology)
(Saturday) Lördag – Lögurdagen – Ehm… bath day? (Löga is a verb and comes from a ancient Germanic word which meant “water, waterfall”, you’re just supposed to take a bath on Lördag)
(Sunday) Söndag – Sunnas dag – Sunnas Day (Sunna is the Sun, like the god that is the sun? In norse mythology of course, also called “Sol” which is a word still in use in modern Swedish for the sun (Solen))
Понеделник (ponedelnik) – literally translates to “the one after Sunday”
Вторник (vtornik) – the second day, (comes from ”vtori” which means 2nd)
Сряда (sriada) – literally means “the middle” so the middle day
Четвъртък (chetvartak) – the fourth day, “chetvart” also means a quarter.
Петък (petak) – it means the fifth day, comes from “pet” which means five.
Събота (sabota) – comes from Sabbath I think, but not 100% sure on that one.
Неделя (nedelia) – literally translates as “not working”, “delo” is a fancy word for work.
* Sunnudagur = Sun day
* Mánudagur = Moon day
* Þriðjudagur = Third day
* Miðvikudagur = Mid-week day
* Fimmtudagur = Fifth day
* Föstudagur – Fast day
* Laugardagur – Bath day
We used to have an older system, where the names of Thursday to Friday were based on the names of the Nordic gods (similar to the English system), but that was considered blasphemous after Christianity took root, and in the 12. century they got the names they have now.
Montag – Moon’s day, from the latin dies lunem
Dienstag – comes from dingesdach, comes from latin Mars Thingsus which is the latin name of Tyr
Mittwoch- literally middle of the week
Donnerstag – Donar’s day, Donar is the german name of Thor
Freitag – Frija’s Day, Frija being the german name of Frigga
Samstag – The Sams comes, jk it comes from Sambaztac which refers to the Sabbath
Sonntag – Sun’s day, from the latin dies solem
Source: Wikipedia
Portuguese is the only romance language which use a different system (I’m not sure about Galician but I think they followed the Spanish convention).
Here it is
Domingo (Sunday)
Segunda-feira (Monday)
Terça-feira (Tuesday)
Quarta-feira (Wednesday)
Quinta-feira (Thursday)
Sexta-feira (Friday)
Sábado (Saturday)
Domingo e Sábado are basically the same as the other languages but the week days are different.
They used to be the same pagan names but a bishop in around the year 500AD decided that it would be a sin to call the days by their pagan names during the Holy Week. Indeed, he thought that that week should be totally devoted to worship and should be holidays. So, the first day (Sunday) was the first holiday or prima-feria. Monday would be the second holiday or segunda-feria.
The Day of the Lord (Dominicus Dies) remain instead of the prima-feria. The Dominicus Dies, which came to our day as Domingo, replaced the former Solis Dies (literally Sun Day) during the Roman Ruling.
Also, the Sabbatum, which came from the Hebraic tradition of Shabbat remained and is nowadays Sábado.
The weekdays remained in the form of second-holiday, third-holiday or, in Portuguese, segunda-feria, terça-feira… The word feria (holiday) evolved into feira which has a different meaning today. We still use the word férias for holidays. A single holiday is a feriado.
So, yeah, our workdays are literally called as holidays. The irony.
At that time, Portuguese and Galician were the same language and they eventually splitted with Portugal independence. They remain very similar to this day but I think they’ve adopted the Spanish format of the pagan god’s.
monday is ponedeljek
It means literally “after sunday”, but as phrase today, it would be spelled “po nedelji”, so its a bit of a morphed word into a masculine noun: ponedeljek.
tuesday is torek
Torek is an archaic slav word for “second (counting)”, implying second day of the week.
wednesday is sreda
Sreda is a way of saying “middle”, tho today we say mostly “sredina” if not talking about the name of the day, but sreda is still sometimes used, like “na sredi polja”, meaning “in the middle of the field”. So sreda, the day, means middle of the week.
thursday is četrtek
A way of spelling “fourth” as a noun in a masculine form. The number four is “štiri” but fourth is “četrti”, “četrta”, or “četrto”, depending on the gender of the noun that is being counted.
friday is petek
Again, we say “pet” for “five”, so petek is fifth as a masculine form noun. Fifth day of the week.
saturday is sobota
Sobota is like a morphed version of Sabbath, meaning day of rest? Not very fluent in religion..
sunday is nedelja
Nedelja comes from “ne delo”, literally “not work”, so it means “work free” as a noun in a feminine form. This also probably comes from religion.
Sreda, sobota and nedelja are feminine nouns, the rest are masculine; important for declension.
Montag (Monday) – day of the moon
Dienstag (Tuesday) – day of Ziu/Tiu/Tyr (or Mars) for the Germanic god
Mittwoch (Wednesday) – originally “Wodensdag” (day of Woden/Wodan/Odin), after christianisation changed to “center of the week” (or middle of the week) – as Sunday is seen as the “first day of the week” typically
Donnerstag (Thursday) – day of Donar/Thor for the Germanic god
Freitag (Friday) – day of Frigg/Frigga for the Germanic godess
Samstag (or Sonnabend) (Saturday) – day of Sabbat, goes back to the Old Greek word “Sambaton” (or Sabbaton) (-> or the neutral version: “evening of the sun”)
Sonntag (Sunday) – day of the sun
‘Maandag’, which means ‘moonday’ literally.
‘Dinsdag’, which they think is named after a Germanic god named ‘Thingus’. Or perhaps Tyr.
‘Woensdag’, named after the Germanic god Wodan.
‘Donderdag’, Named after the old Germanic name for Thor, Donar. Sharing the same etymological history, ‘donder’ is also the Dutch word for thunder.
‘Vrijdag’, Named after the Germanic goddess Freya.
‘Zaterdag’, named after the Roman god Saturn.
‘Zondag’, literally means sun-day.
Pretty cool to see the differences between the germanic and romance languages btw.
From Monday to Sunday :
Pondelok – Day after the rest/Sunday
Utorok – Second
Streda -Midweek
Štvrtok – Fourth
Piatok – Fifth
Sobota – from Hebrew Sabbath
Nedeľa – Slavic origin ne + delati(nerobiť/nepracovať in Slovak), which means to not work.
Apparently Portuguese is the only romanic language that uses numerals for the days of the week.
Ours go, for Monday, segunda (second) – feira (nowadays means market, but it seems it comes from latin “feria” , party)
The rest of the days till Friday, are the other “feiras” the 3 terça-feira, 4 quarta-feira, 5 quinta-feira and the 6th sexta feira
Saturday, is sabado, from latin “Sabbatu” that comes from Hebrew “Shabbath”
Sunday, Domingo, comes from latin “dominicu” lords day.
Monday (Mandag/Måndag)
Tuesday (Tirsdag/Tysdag) Norse god Ty/Tyr
Wednesday (Onsdag)Odin’s Norse god
Thursday (Torsdag) Thor’s Day Norse god of thunder
Friday (Fredag) The Norse god Frey/Frøya
Saturday (Lørdag/Laurdag) which means Washing day.
Sunday Søndag/Sundag day of the sun.
Lithuanian is pretty boring one. Starting from Monday..
pirmadienis – first day
antradienis – second day
trečiadienis – third day
ketvirtadienis – fourth day
penktadienis – fifth day
šeštadienis – sixth day
sekmadienis – seventh day (older word for seven)
English names of the days of the week are some of the only remnants we have of the old Germanic religion that the original Anglo-Saxon settlers had when they first came to England in the 5th century. Unfortunately they converted to Christianity before they became literate, nonetheless most of the days of the week are calqued from Latin according to their own pantheon:
Monday – From Old English *Mōnandæg*, “Day of the Moon”
Tuesday – From *Tīwesdæg*, Day of Tiw, God of War (equivalent of Tyr in Norse mythology)
Wednesday – From *Wōdnesdæg*, Day of Woden (Odin in Norse mythology)
Thursday – *Thūnresdæg*, Day of Thunor, God of Thunder (equivalent of Thor)
Friday – *Frīgedæg*, Day of Frig, God of Motherhood.
Saturday – *Sæturnesdæg*, Day of Saturn (for whatever reason the Anglo-Saxons didn’t decide to adapt this, according to Wikipedia because there wasn’t an obvious equivalent Germanic god)
Sunday – *Sunnandæg*, Day of the Sun
Poniedziałek – from “po niedzieli”, meaning “after Sunday”
Wtorek – “second” but fancier (it uses the archaic word “wtóry” instead of “drugi”)
Środa – “middle”
Czwartek – “fourth”
Piątek – “fifth”
~~Szóstek~~ Sobota – from the Jewish sabbath
Niedziela – from “nie działać”, meaning “not working”
Italian is also a Romance language, so the names of the days are almost identical. The days from Monday to Friday have names of pagan origin:
* Lunedì: *lunae diem* ‘moon’s day’.
* Martedì: *Martis diem* ‘Mars day’.
* Mercoledì: *Mercuri diem* ‘Mercury’s day’.
* Giovedì: *Iovis diem* ‘Jupiter’s day’.
* Venerdì: *Veneris diem* ‘Venus’ day
Saturday has a name of Hebrew origin:
* Hebrew *šabbāt* ‘(day of) rest’ > Greek *sábbaton* > Latin *sabbatum* > Italian “sabato”
Sunday has a Christian origin:
* *dominica (dies)* ‘(day) of the Lord’.
In catalan the meanings are the same in romanian. All days except sunday follow the convention of using dia+the deity of the day.
Dies Lunae = Dilluns (Dl)
Dies Martis = Dimarts (Dt)
Dies Mercredis = Dimecres (Dc)
Dies Iovis = Dijous (Dj)
Dies Veneris =Divendres (Dv)
Dies Sabbatus? = Dissabte (Ds)
Dies domini/dominicum = Diumenge (Dm)
Same as in all other Slavic languages, it seems.
Ponedeljak (Monday) – the day after nedelja (Sunday)
Utorak (Tuesday) – the second day
Sreda (Wednesday) – the middle day
Četvrtak (Thursday)- the fourth day
Petak (Friday) – the fifth day
Subota (Saturday) – from Sabbath
Nedelja (Sunday) – no working day
In Latvian the days are named by their order, except for Sunday:
pirmdiena – first day – Monday
otrdiena – Tuesday
trešdiena – Wednesday
ceturtdiena – Thursday
piektdiena – Friday
sestdiena – Saturday
svētdiena – holy day – Sunday
Sunday: (dies) **Dominicus**, (day) of the Lord, from *domus* (house, wealthy house), hence *dominus*, the lord of the house, the master; and from there **domination**, **domain**, **Don** Corleone, …
Monday – понеделник [ponedelnik] = “After-Do-Nothing-Day Day”
Tuesday – вторник [vtornik] = “Second Day”
Wednesday – сряда [sryada] = “Middle”
Thursday – четвъртък [chetvârtâk] = “Fourth Day”
Friday – петък [petâk] = “Fifth Day”
Saturday – събота [sâbota] = “Sabbath”
Sunday – неделя [nedelya] = “Do-Nothing Day”
Irish weekdays:
Luan – Moon day (Latin)
Máirt – Mars day (Latin)
Céadaoin – Day of the first fast (Christian)
Déardaoin – day between the fasts (Christian)
Aoine – day of the fast (Christian)
Sathairn – Saturn’s day (Latin)
Domhnaigh – Lord’s day (Christian)
Monday: hétfő – Hét (week, also means seven) + fő (main, major, rarely for head)
Tuesday: kedd – from “kettedik” (alternate, rarely used form of második meaning second)
Wednesday: szerda – from slavic sreda “среда” (middle)
Thursday: csütörtök – from slavic četrtek “четртек” (means 4th or Thursday)
Friday: péntek – from greek penta (five) or slavic petek/petak referring to the day when Jesus died.
Saturday: szombat – from greek “szambato” which is from hebrew”sabbath”
Sunday: vasárnap – from vásár (market, fair) + nap (day). Old Hungarian laws mandated that large market events were to be held on the 7th day of the week where livestock, crops and various goods were bought and sold. A “vásár” is bigger in scale and considered regional, compared to the everyday town marketplace called “piac”.
Two side notes: 1. in Hungary the first day is Monday 2. in Hungarian the names of days start with lowercase.
Ooof, ours are all over the place. Here we go.
Sunday: Pazar= Bazaar. Probably because weekly markets were held on this day? Pazar still almost means weekly market, or marketplace.
Monday: Pazartesi= Pazar+ertesi= After bazaar. The day after Pazar, basically.
Tuesday: Sali= From Arabic “yevme’s-salîs, yevme’s-selâse”, third day. Third day of the week.
Wednesday: Çarşamba= From Persian “Çahâr şenbe”, fourth day. Fourth day of the week.
Thursday: Perşembe= From Persian “Penç şenbe”, fifth day. Fifth day of the week.
Friday: Cuma= From Arabic “Cum‘a” gathering together. Probably because because this is the day when men gather during midday to pray together.
Saturday: Cumartesi= Cuma+ertesi= After Cuma. So, the day after Cuma.
Interestingly in Irish the days of the week are based on the latin days of the week. Probably due to the influence of the catholic church. Probably the same reason for the fasting
1. Dé Luain (Monday) – from Latin dies Lunae
1. Dé Máirt (Tuesday) – from Latin dies Martis
1. Dé Céadaoin (Wednesday) – céad (first) aoin (fast) i.e. the first fast of the week
1. Déardaoin (Thursday) – the day between the fasts
1. Dé hAoine (Friday) – the day of the fast
1. Dé Sathairn (Saturday) – from Latin dies Saturni
1. Dé Domhnaigh (Sunday) – from Latin dies Dominicus