Where Do the Names for Days of the Week Come From?
They come primarily from the planets…
The Romans named the days of the week after the five known planets of the time (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn), plus the sun and the moon. The planets, meanwhile, were named after Roman gods and goddesses. It was this convention that was followed throughout many European languages.
Sunday became the first day of the week, with the sabbath thus falling on the seventh day.
Let’s take a look at this in some more detail.
Sunday
We start the week therefore by paying homage to the sun in the English ‘Sunday,’ or indeed as Sonntag in German. Being the Lord’s day, the Romance languages, on the other hand, adopted variations of diēs Dominicus, the Latin phrase for day of the Lord. This became dimanche in French and domingo in Spanish, for example.
Monday
The day of the moon comes next, with ‘Monday’ in English and Monntag in German. Latin lūnae diēs gives us our French and Spanish words lundi and lunes. Compare, for instance, the word lunar in English and ‘la lune’ in French.
The Romance languages then dedicate the next five days to Roman deities. Germanic folks adapted the system, using names from their own mythologies.
Tuesday
The first is Mars, the god of war, giving us diēs Mārtis in Latin and similar forms mardi in French and martes in Spanish. In Old English, Tiw was the god of war, which led to Tiw’s day, or ‘Tuesday.’ German meanwhile takes its name for Tuesday from thing, which was the term for Assembly, a precursor to modern parliament. Tyr (which is Tiw) in Norse, was the patron. We therefore end up with Dienstag in German.
Wednesday
Next is mercredi in French or miércoles in Spanish, from Mercury, the day of the god of communication and both derived from diēs Mercuriī in the Latin. Our ‘Wednesday,’ meanwhile, is from the god of knowledge, Odin, who was married to Freya, after whom we then get ‘Friday.’ In German, there is a far more practical approach, as Mittwoch is mid-week.
Thursday
Jeudi and jueves, the French and Spanish respectively, come from the Latin Jovis diēs, meaning day of Jupiter. In English, this is Thor, god of thunder, giving us ‘Thursday’ and similarly Donnerstag in German.
Friday
Diēs Veneris is the day of Venus, god of love in Latin. This gives us vendredi in French and viernes in Spanish. German, like the English, is from Freya, hence Freitag.
Saturday
Then, we end the week with religious days in both the Romance languages and German, as samedi in French, sábado in Spanish and Samstag in German are all derived from Sabbath, or Shabbat in Hebrew, meaning rest. ‘Saturday’ in English, on the other hand, follows the orignal Latin pattern in which diēs Sāturnī was the day of Saturn.
