# Names for the days of the week

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 28, 2001, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842 "2001-03-28T16:09:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mongrel\_8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@mongrel\_8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mongrel_8)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2001, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842/1 "2001-03-28T16:09:58Z")

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This [thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=65203)

reminded me of a question I had. I’ve read [Cecil’s column](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_166.html) on how the days of the week were named but I have heard differently. I have read that they were named after the Norse Gods. Thursday- Thor’s Day and so forth.

If I am incorrect and Cecil is right then where did this come from that the days of the week were named after Norse gods?

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**Author:** ![kristina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/2acd7d/32.png) [@kristina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kristina)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2001, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842/2 "2001-03-28T17:36:09Z")

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well i can’t tell you about norse gods but i heard a bit differently one time. the german word for thursday is donnerstag. that translates literally to thunder’s day. i always assumed that thursday was another way of saying thundersday. which after a little thought here i guess could be a reference to thor god of thunder. so i’m sorry not to be of more help but a little more info is always fun!

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**Author:** ![RM\_Mentock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@RM\_Mentock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RM_Mentock)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2001, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842/3 "2001-03-28T17:41:27Z")

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I would have thought that the thread you mentioned had the answer to your question. It mentions that our English names for days are derived from Norse gods, but Cecil only answered the question of why there are seven days in a week. The romance languages names for days of the week are clearly derived from the planet names–and the Norse names were applied after.

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**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2001, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842/4 "2001-03-28T18:26:47Z")

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Your answer is here:

> **[The Names of the Days of the Week](https://www.infoplease.com/calendars/months-seasons/names-days-week)**
>
> The mythic roots of some common wordsThere are two basic origins for weekday names. In many languages, like French and Spanish, the days are named for the planets.In Japan, for instance, the days of the week are named for the five classical elements...

To summarize, as RM said, the Romance language base the names of the week on Roman gods and celestial bodies. In Germanic languages, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday took the Norse equivalents.

Sunday - Sun’s Day  
Monday - Moon’s Day  
Tuesday - Mars’ Day → Tiw’s Day (war god)  
Wednesday - Mercury’s Day → Wodin’s Day (wisdom)  
Thursday - Jupiter’s Day → Thor’s Day (thunder)  
Friday - Venus’ Day → Frigg’s Day (love)  
Saturday - Saturn’s Day

It is interesting to note what the Slavic languages have done. In Polish we have the following:

Niedziela – Not sure of meaning  
Poniedzialek – Day after (“po”) Niedziela  
Wtorek – Not sure  
Sroda --Middle Day  
Wtorek – Fourth Day  
Piatek – Fifth Day  
Sobota – Sabbath Day

Obviously, you have to reorder the days of the week to make this work exactly. Perhaps somebody with a better knowledge of Slavic etymology can help me with this.

In Hungarian:

Vasarnap – Market Day  
Hetfo – lit. “Seven head” i.e. “head of the week”  
Kedd – ???  
Szerda – from Slavic “middle”  
Csutortok – from Slavic “fourth”  
Pentek – from Slavic “fifth”  
Szambat – I assume “Sabbath”

Here in Hungary, Monday is considered the start of the week. How “Wednesday” ends up being middle, I’m not sure, unless we only consider the five-day week and “Sabbath” and “Market Day” being extra days. But I believe the five-day week is a recent invention, at least in Western Europe.

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**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2001, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842/5 "2001-03-28T18:29:31Z")

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whoops. thursday in polish should be “czwartek” not “wtorek” ma bad.

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**Author:** ![mok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/edb3f5/32.png) [@mok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mok)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2001, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842/6 "2001-03-28T19:50:15Z")

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pulykamell sed:

> [@](#):
>
> Niedziela – Not sure of meaning

I was given to understand that it meant “_(day of)no work_”: _nie_==no, _dziela_ from _dzielo_==work.

-m

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**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2001, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842/7 "2001-03-28T20:35:55Z")

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Yeah, I’ve been told that it comes from those words, but I’ve been told by a Serbian (similar word in that language) that the etymology is different. Unfortunately, I cannot remember what it was.

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**Author:** ![Protesilaus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Protesilaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Protesilaus)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2001, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842/8 "2001-03-28T23:40:13Z")

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[Here’s](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=61634) an earlier thread about Cecil’s column.

The Babylonians seem to have been the first to name days of the week after planets/gods around 700 BC. The Romans replaced the names with their own gods when Constantine borrowed the idea of a week in AD 321. The idea of a week didn’t make it to Britain until the time of the Anglo-Saxon conquests, who took up some old Roman customs but kept their own religion and gods, hence the changes to the Norse gods in the English day names.

```auto

Planet Ancient Planet-gods Day Name
          Babylonian Roman Anglo-Saxon (English)
Sun Shamash Sol Sun Sunday
Moon Sin Luna Moon Monday
Mars Nergal Mars Tiw Tuesday
Mercury Nabu Mercurius Woden Wednesday
Jupiter Marduk Jupiter Thor Thursday
Venus Ishtar Venus Freya Friday
Saturn Ninurta Saturnus Saturn Saturday

```

Source: _Calendar: Humanity’s Epic Struggle to Determine a True and Accurate Year_, by David Ewing Duncan (p. 56)

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**Author:** ![Kyomara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8edcca/32.png) [@Kyomara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyomara)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2001, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842/9 "2001-03-30T01:50:38Z")

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Okay…,but how did they choose the ORDER of the day names? I could see why they might put the sun and the moon at the beginning of the week, but why does the king of the gods come on Thursday?

Could it be that if you consider Monday the first day of the week, Thursday falls right in the middle instead of Wednesday? And still, how did they choose the placement of the other names?

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**Author:** ![Protesilaus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Protesilaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Protesilaus)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2001, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842/10 "2001-03-30T02:04:08Z")

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From the same linked thread:

> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by RM Mentock \*  
> \*\*I believe this has been discussed before–to me, the most interesting thing is how the particular planets were assigned to particular days. Why Sun, moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn?
> 
> If you order the planets (and sun and moon) in descending order of their (apparent) length of time of motion through the heavens, you get Saturn (29 years), Jupiter (12 years), Mars (almost 2 years), Sun (one year!), Venus (224 days), Mercury (88 days), moon (a month). Then, if you assign each planet to an hour, starting with the first hour of the day, and repeating the pattern for an entire week, you find that the first hour of each day is a different planet.
> 
> And, ta-da, they go like this: Saturn, Sun, moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus. \*\*

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**Author:** ![Stephen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/96bed5/32.png) [@Stephen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephen)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2001, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842/11 "2001-03-30T06:28:32Z")

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Please forgive me for copy/pasting an old post of mine, but this topic was my very first question way back on the SDMB… FWIW…  
Why have most western languages adopted the Astronomical names for Saturday, Sunday and Monday (Saturn, Sun and Moon respectively) and yet chose different origins for the remaining days?

Saturn Sun Moon Mars Mercury Jupiter Venus -Astro.  
Saturni Solis Lunae Martis Mercurii Jovis Veneris -Latin  
Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday -English  
Saterne’s Sun’s Moon’s Tiw’s Woden’s Thor’ Frigg’s -Saxon  
Samedi Dimanche Lundi Mardi Mercredi Jeudi Vendredi -French  
Sabado Domingo Segunda Terca Quarta Quinta Sexta -Portugese  
Sabado Domingo Lunes Martes Miercoles Jueves Viernes -Spanish

Also, if anyone can shed light on the other origins in cultures that were isolated from Latin and Saxon influence, I would be greatly interested.

On a related note:  
Here is some background into the way in which the days got their names from the seven ‘heavenly bodies.’ Rather than chart the whole thing in this posting, I will leave it to those who are interested to try it at home.

First, the order of the planets came from the duration of their Orbit, as viewed from Earth. In descending order, this gives us Saturn = 10,761 days, Jupiter = 4,332 days, Mars = 687 days, Sun = 365 days, Venus = 224 days, Mercury = 88 days, Moon = 29 days.

With this order, each of the hours in each of seven days is given a planet. Start at 1:00am Saturday with Saturn, 2:00am with Jupiter and so on. When you get to Midnight with Mars, the Sun is carried over to 1:00am Sunday. This continues until you have the days filled in, with 1:00am each day representing the name of the day as the Romans would have called them.

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**Author:** ![Timchik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@Timchik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Timchik)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2001, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842/12 "2001-03-30T07:32:20Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by pulykamell \*  
> …  
> It is interesting to note what the Slavic languages have done. In Polish we have the following:
> 
> Niedziela – Not sure of meaning  
> Poniedzialek – Day after (“po”) Niedziela  
> Wtorek – Not sure  
> Sroda --Middle Day  
> Wtorek – Fourth Day  
> Piatek – Fifth Day  
> Sobota – Sabbath Day
> 
> Obviously, you have to reorder the days of the week to make this work exactly. Perhaps somebody with a better knowledge of Slavic etymology can help me with this.  
> … \*\*

Don’t know about Polish, but in Russian “Nedelya” just means “week”. The days of the week are:

Monday - ponedelnik (“start of the week”)  
Tuesday - vtornik (“second day”)  
Wednesday - sreda (“middle day”)  
Thursday - chetverg (“fourth day”)  
Friday - pyatnitsa (“fifth day”)  
Saturday - subbota (“sabbath day”)  
Sunday - voskresenie (“Resurrection”)

As in Hungary, Monday is considered the first day of the week, which would make sense for a Christian culture - you’re supposed to rest on the seventh day, no?

I find these names kind of unimaginative (except for “Resurrection”), but the names of Slavic months are much more poetic. Russian months are cognates to Western European usage (Yanvar, Fevral, Mart, Avril, etc.) but Ukranian, Polish, and a few others use funky descriptive names like “traven” (grass-time?) for May and “listopad” (leaf-fall) for September (?).

As for the OP (ahem, sorry, got a little bit off-track there), the etymologies for the days of the week in my Concise Oxford seem to imply that the names of the Germanic/Norse gods were used to translate the Roman versions in terms the German tribes would understand.

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**Author:** ![Spiny\_Norman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Spiny\_Norman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiny_Norman)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2001, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842/13 "2001-03-30T10:51:00Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> As for the OP (ahem, sorry, got a little bit off-track there), the etymologies for the days of the week in my Concise Oxford seem to imply that the names of the Germanic/Norse gods were used to translate the Roman versions in terms the German tribes would understand.

I **like** that image. Picture a Roman and a German trying to communicate:  
Roman: “See you next Jovis-day, then ?”  
German: “Jovis-day - I’m not sure I really follow?”  
Roman: “Y’know, Jovis ? The fellow with thunder, lightning etc. ?”  
German: “Oh, **that** guy, Well, I suppose I should tell you that he’s known as Thor hereabouts. Next Thors-day it is, then.”

Sorry, not much else to contribute here.

S. Norman

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**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2001, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842/14 "2001-03-30T16:35:30Z")

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Arabic days of the week  
Sunday: _yawm al-ahad_ (Day One)  
Monday: _yawm al-ithnayn_ (Day Two)  
Tuesday: _yawm al-thulâthâ’_ (Day Three)  
Wednesday: _yawm al-arba‘â’_ (Day Four)  
Thursday: \*yawm al-khamîs \*(Day Five)  
Friday: _yawm al-jumu‘ah_ (Day of the Congregational Prayer in the Mosque)  
Saturday: _yawm al-sabt_ (The Sabbath).

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**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2001, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842/15 "2001-03-31T04:55:28Z")

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Hebrew days of the week  
Sunday: _yom ri’shon_ (First Day)  
Monday: _yom sheni_ (Second Day)  
Tuesday: _yom shelishi_ (Third Day)  
Wednesday: _yom ribi‘i_ (Fourth Day)  
Thursday: _yom Hamishi_ (Fifth Day)  
Friday: _yom shishi_ (Sixth Day)  
Saturday: _shabbat_ (Sabbath)

[sub]Do I detect a pattern here?[/sub]

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**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2001, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842/16 "2001-03-31T05:01:22Z")

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Persian days of the week  
Sunday: _yekshanbeh_ (Day One)  
Monday: _doshanbeh_ (Day Two)  
Tuesday: _seshanbeh_ (Day Three)  
Wednesday: _chahârshanbeh_ (Day Four)  
Thursday: _panjshanbeh_ (Day Five)  
Friday: _jom‘eh_ (Day of gathering for prayer in the mosque)  
Saturday: _shanbeh_

That’s right, the name for Saturday is just plain “Day.”

If the Persian name for Monday looks familiar, it should. Dushanbe is the capital of Tajikistan, so called because originally it was the town where the weekly market was held on Monday.

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**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2001, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842/17 "2001-03-31T05:07:01Z")

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_Lithuanian days of the week_  
Monday: _pirmadienis_ (First Day)  
Tuesday: _antradienis_ (Second Day)  
Wednesday: _treciadienis_ (Third Day)  
Thursday: _ketvirtadienis_ (Fourth Day)  
Friday: _penktadienis_ (Fifth Day)  
Saturday: _šeštadienis_ (Sixth Day)  
Sunday: _sekmadienis_ (Seventh Day)

The Lithuanians follow the odd Russian habit of starting the week on Monday. Is that something they picked up during the Soviet era?

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**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2001, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842/18 "2001-03-31T05:14:14Z")

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Finnish days of the week  
Sunday through Tuesday, the Finns just copied the Germanic names: _sunnuntai, maanantai, tiistai_. Wednesday is _keskiviikko_ (meaning Midweek, like German _Mittwoch_). Thursday and Friday, _torstai & perjantai_, are recognizable as more Germanic loans, and Saturday, _lauantai_, is borrowed from Swedish.

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**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2001, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842/19 "2001-03-31T05:29:25Z")

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Turkish days of the week  
Sunday: _pazar günü_ (Market Day)  
Monday: _pazartesi_ (Day after Sunday)  
Tuesday: _salï günü_  
Wednesday: [i/],car,samba\* (borrowed from Persian _chahârshanbeh_)  
Thursday: _per,sembe_ (corruption of Persian _panjshanbeh_?)  
Friday: _cuma_ (Arabic _jum‘ah_)  
Saturday: _cumartesi_ (Day after Friday)

I can’t find where _salï_ came from. It seems to be a native Turkish word but it wasn’t in Sir Gerard Clauson’s _Etymological Dictionary of Pre-Thirteenth Century Turkish_.

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**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2001, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842/20 "2001-03-31T05:41:54Z")

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Hindustani days of the week  
Sunday: _ravivâr_ (Sun-Day) or _itvâr_ (Lord’s Day)  
Monday: Hindi _somavâr_ (Day of Soma/Moon); Urdu _pîr_ (Old Man)  
Tuesday: _mangal_ (Auspicious, i.e. Mars–so called because Mars is regarded as malevolent, so it’s named with the opposite quality as an antidote)  
Wednesday: _budh_ (Mercury–same as Buddha; planet of the intellect)  
Thursday: Hindi _b.rhaspati_ (Jupiter); Urdu _jum‘erât_ (Friday Eve)  
Friday: Hindi _shukra_ (Venus); Urdu _jum‘ah_ (Day of gathering for prayer in the mosque)  
Saturday: Hindi _sanî_ (Saturn); Urdu _haftah_ (‘week’–Persian word for ‘seven’).

So Sanskrit is one language where the mythological planets matched up with the Roman days. Perhaps because both ancient India and Rome ultimately got their astronomy/astrology from the Babylonians.

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