# Names for the days of the week **URL:** \ **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:** 2
**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, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842/21 "2001-03-31T05:52:58Z")
Chinese days of the week Sunday: _xing qi ri_ (Week’s Day–_xing qi_ ‘week’ is written with the characters for ‘star’ and ‘period of time’; _ri_ means both ‘sun’ and ‘day’) Monday: _xing qi yi_ (Week’s First) Tuesday: _xing qi er_ (Week’s Second) Wednesday: _xing qi san_ (Week’s Third) Thursday: _xing qi si_ (Week’s Fourth) Friday: _xing qi wu_ (Week’s Fifth) Saturday: _xing qi liu_ (Week’s Sixth) Another country that thinks the week stars on Monday! ---
**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, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842/22 "2001-03-31T06:12:23Z")
\*Tamil days of the week Sunday: _ñâyirruk kilamai_ (Sun-Day) Monday: _tinkaT kilamai_ (Moon-Day) Tuesday: _cevvâyk kilamai_ (Mars-Day) Wednesday: _putan kilamai_ (Mercury-Day: uses the name _budha_ borrowed from Sanskrit) Thursday: _viyâlak kilamai_ (Jupiter-Day) Friday: _veLLik kilamai_ (Venus-Day) Saturday: _canik kilamai_ (Saturn-Day: uses the name _Sani_ borrowed from Sanskrit). ---
**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, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842/23 "2001-03-31T06:42:29Z")
_Hungarian days of the week Sunday: vasárnap (Market Day; vasár ‘market’ is borrowed from Persian bâzâr, as is Turkish pazar) Monday: hétfõ (Head of the Week; hét, like Persian hafteh_, means both ‘seven’ and ‘week’; _fõ_ means ‘head’ so the Hungarians too must think the week starts with Monday) Tuesday: _kedd_ (related to _kettõ_ ‘two’?) Wednesday: _szerda_ Thursday: _csütörtök_ Friday: _péntek_ Saturday: _szombat_ (Sabbath) I have no way to explain the Hungarian names for Tuesday through Friday. Any Hungarians here can help us out with the etymology? \*According to _The Hungarian Language_, ed. by L. Benkõ & S. Imre, _hét_ was a loanword from Old Iranian, which explains its similarity to the Persian word. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2001, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842/24 "2001-03-31T06:58:30Z")
**Jomo** : You’re a night owl too? Hell, I guess it gets boring around midnight everywhere, what with all of those wussies going to sleep and nothing but the worst of the worst on TV. 🙂 Putting up the days of the week in various languages is as good a thing to do as any. I actually copied down the Persian days of the week. Why? Who knows. I don’t have any plans to visit Iran. Anyway, I would like to know where you get your info. Trying to recite the days of the week in Urdu or some other obscure language might be just the trick for those long nights. Please don’t tell me you’re reciting from memory. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2001, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842/25 "2001-03-31T13:01:27Z")
Let’s go in alphabetical order, starting with… **Basque** Sunday: _igande_ No idea of the meaning. Monday: _astelehen_ (lit: “first of the week”) Tuesday: _astearte_ (lit: “middle of the week”) Wednesday: _asteazken_ (lit: “end of the week”) Thursday: _ostegun_ Not sure of the meaning, but possibly related to the suffix _-oste_, meaning “after” - so “after (the end of the week)”? Friday: _ostiral_ or _bariku_ No idea here. Saturday: _larunbat_ Again, no idea, though there is the word _laru_, meaning “yellow”. Yellow day? Nah, probably not. So not only does the week begin on Monday, but it ends on Wednesday. It may be that the original, pre-Roman Basque week was only three or four days long and they tacked on three more when the Romans showed up with their seven-day week. **Esperanto** Sunday: _dimancxo_ Monday: _lundo_ Tuesday: _mardo_ Wednesday: _merkredo_ Thursday: _jxaudo_ Friday: _vendredo_ Saturday: _sabato_ Yeah, a straight lift from the Roman-influenced days of the week. But since we’re doing any languages we know/can think of, it ought to be included. 🙂 **Greek** Sunday: _Kuriaki_ - the Lord’s day. Monday: _Deutera_ - the second day. Tuesday: _Triti_ - the third day. Wednesday: _Tetarti_ - the fourth day. Thursday: _Pempti_ - the fifth day. Friday: _Paraskeui_ - related to the word meaning “prepare”, most likely for Saturday: _Sabbato_ - the Sabbath. Interesting! In Greece, the Sabbath (and seventh day) is not the Lord’s day. ---
**Author:** ![mok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/edb3f5/32.png) [@mok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mok)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2001, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842/26 "2001-03-31T17:26:07Z")
Jomo Mojo sed: > [@](#): > > Hungarian days of the week > … > > Wednesday: szerda > Thursday: csütörtök > Friday: péntek I am just guessing, but those days sound like possible Indo-European loans to me, probably Slavic. Compare them to Polish: Wednesday: szerda (ser-da) / sroda (shro-da) Thursday: csütörtök (chy-tör-tök) / wtorek (ftor-ek) \<== _also consider cztery (ch-ter-i) == 4_ Friday: péntek (pen-tek) / piatek (pjon-tek) -m ---
**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:** [April 1, 2001, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842/27 "2001-04-01T06:50:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by m \* > \*\*I am just guessing, but those days sound like possible Indo-European loans to me, probably Slavic. Compare them to Polish: > > Wednesday: szerda (ser-da) / sroda (shro-da) > Thursday: csütörtök (chy-tör-tök) / wtorek (ftor-ek) \<== _also consider cztery (ch-ter-i) == 4_ > Friday: péntek (pen-tek) / piatek (pjon-tek)\*\* **m**! Good call! You’re exactly right. Hungarian has picked up a great many loanwords from Slavic. Loránd Benkõ in _The Hungarian Language_ confirms your guess: he lists _szerda_ and _csütörtök_ among the Slavonic loanwords in Hungarian. As for Polish _piatek_, does the _a_ have a hook under it? That would make it nasal accounting for the _n_ in _péntek_. (Polish has conserved the Old Slavonic nasal vowels more than other modern Slavic languages.) This would corroborate my guess that _kedd_ for Tuesday is related to the Magyar word for ‘two’. Just think, if English speakers started the week on Monday, we could follow it with “Twosday.” ---
**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:** [April 1, 2001, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842/28 "2001-04-01T06:54:40Z")
Does anybody remember Harlan Ellison’s story “ **Shatterday** ”? He reinvented all the days of the week with Joycean wordplay. The title of the story is a chilling example. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2001, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842/29 "2001-04-01T07:01:38Z")
Not to hijack too much, but has it occured to anyone else that humanity isn’t all that clever when it comes to naming days of the week? I mean, “Day One” or “Day Two”? I mean, you’d think we could come up with more exciting names. ---
**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:** [April 1, 2001, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842/30 "2001-04-01T07:39:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Captain Amazing \* > \*\*Not to hijack too much, but has it occured to anyone else that humanity isn’t all that clever when it comes to naming days of the week? I mean, “Day One” or “Day Two”? I mean, you’d think we could come up with more exciting names. \*\* And this from Captain Amazing. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![mok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/edb3f5/32.png) [@mok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mok)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2001, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842/31 "2001-04-01T20:17:15Z")
Jomo Mojo asked: > [@](#): > > As for Polish piatek, does the a have a hook under it? That would make it nasal accounting for the n in péntek. Yup, the _a_ is a nasalized _a_ with a “hook” – that’s what I attempted to indicate with the pseudo-phonetic “piatek (pjon-tek)”. (In Polish, a nasalized _a_ sounds more like an _o_. Yes, linguists and native speakers, that is a simplification.) Alas, I can’t figure out how to post to this board in IPA (the international phonetic alphabet). -m ---
**Author:** ![PublicBlast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/779978/32.png) [@PublicBlast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PublicBlast)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2001, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842/32 "2001-04-02T05:51:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Captain Amazing \* > \*\*Not to hijack too much, but has it occured to anyone else that humanity isn’t all that clever when it comes to naming days of the week? I mean, “Day One” or “Day Two”? I mean, you’d think we could come up with more exciting names. \*\* Well, a whole lot of cultures/countries named their days after various deities, but the advent of Christianty and Communism “cured” a lot of places of such ancient veneration. I know in Iceland, at least, Christianity heralded the renaming of the weekdays as “day one” “day two” etc… ---
**Author:** ![Doobieous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@Doobieous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doobieous)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2001, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842/33 "2001-04-02T09:50:09Z")
Since I can, here’s the days of the week in a Romance language I have been working on called Montreiano: Luns Marts Mèrcóus Ioues Vèrns Sauáo Domiño Note: ñ is pronounced as “ng”, not “ny” as in Spanish (though the two are closely related) ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2001, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842/34 "2001-04-02T10:46:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jomo Mojo \* > \*\*Finnish days of the week … and Saturday, _lauantai_, is borrowed from Swedish. \*\* And in Swedish **Saturday** is **lördag** , a derivation of an older word **lögerdag** , meaning **the day to take a bath**. (Just thought I’d mention it) ---
**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:** [April 2, 2001, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842/35 "2001-04-02T12:58:53Z")
Hey **Jomo**! I already explained the Hungarian thing like a gazillion posts back! Trying to steal my credit? 🙂 Anyhow, “kedd” as deriving from the Hungarian word for “two” - “ket” (accent acute over the “e”) seems like a logical enough guess. I never had thought of that. ---
**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:** [April 2, 2001, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842/36 "2001-04-02T13:50:31Z")
I just wanted to pop back in a say how cool a topic this is. Now I am curious about what monthes, seasons, directions, etc. would be in other languages. Thank you for helping to cultivate my interest. ---
**Author:** ![OxyMoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e9a140/32.png) [@OxyMoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OxyMoron)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2001, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842/37 "2001-04-02T14:16:39Z")
Does anybody know when Japan adopted a Western-style seven-day week? I know they adopted the Gregorian calendar not long after the Meiji restoration (1868), but I’m wondering if the week predates that. Anyway, the days have interesting names (each ends in yohbi, or “day”) Sunday - Nichi (Sun) Monday - Getsu (Moon) Tuesday - Ka (Fire) Wednesday - Sui (Water) Thursday - Moku (Tree) Friday - Kin (Gold) Saturday - Do (Earth). The months are just First Month, Second Month, etc. Very dull. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2001, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842/38 "2001-04-02T14:30:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by mongrel\_8 \* > \*\*Now I am curious about what monthes, seasons, directions, etc. would be in other languages. Thank you for helping to cultivate my interest. \*\* OK. Let’s start with Swedish **Days of the week** Söndag Måndag Tisdag Onsdag Torsdag Fredag Lördag **Months** (not much different from English though) Januari Februari Mars April Maj Juni Juli Augusti September Oktober November December **Seasons** (I think you can work it out which is which) Vår Sommar Höst Vinter **Directions** Nord (or Norr) Söder Öster Väster BTW I once read something somewhere on Straight Dope where someone asked if the Earth was called Earth in other languages too. I don’t remember who answered it but he/she/it demonstrated that it wasn’t so by entering the word earth into some automated translator. The translation into Swedish came out as **mull** , which is nothing but the common or garden variety (and it’s very rarely used, I don’t think I have ever heard it other than in funeral services). The planet is called **Jorden**. ---
**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:** [April 2, 2001, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842/39 "2001-04-02T15:55:38Z")
Well, we’ve done the polish days, so let’s do the months and directions: styczen --jan luty --feb marzec – march kwiecien – april maj --may czerwiec – june lipiec --july sierpien – august wrzesien – september pazdiernik – october listopad --november grudzien – december i’m not sure what most of these mean. february might come from “lod” meaning ice, but that’s just my guess, and I’m not too convinced it’s right. My WAG is that “lipiec” comes from “lipa” meaning “linden.” “Listopad” definitely means something like “falling of the leaves.” It is interesting to note that Croatian also has a month called “Listopad,” but it’s October. Funny that. One would expect the leave falling month to be earlier in the more northerly country. I believe Czech also uses descriptive names for months. Oh, and “kwiecien” comes from “kwiat” meaning either “flower” or “bloom.” north – polnoc – “midnight” east – wschod – “rise (of the sun)” south – poludnie – “noon” west – zachod – “set (of the sun)” pretty straightforward. spring – wiosna summer – lato fall – jesien winter – zima No idea where these come from. The word for “cold” is “zimno,” which bears resemblence to “zima” ---
**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:** [April 2, 2001, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842/40 "2001-04-02T16:29:03Z")
\ ***pulykamell** (Turkey Breast), _sajnálom, barát!_ I overlooked that you were first with the Magyar. _Rosszom_ (my bad). As for Hindustani days of the week: I made a mistake — _itvâr_ for Sunday does not mean ‘Lord’s Day’; it comes from Sanskrit _aditya_ ‘Sun’ + _-vâr._ In Sanskrit, _ravi_ and _aditya_ are two words for the Sun, in addition to the usual _sûrya_. So Urdu has kept the old planetary names for Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday. It replaced Monday with a Persian name, Friday with an Arabic name, and Thursday with an Arabic-Hindustani compound. For Saturday, some Urdu speakers use the planetary name _sanîcar_, and some use the Persian word _haftah_ meaning ‘seven’ or ‘week’. Why in heaven’s name they use the Persian word _pîr_ (‘old man’) for Monday, I have no idea. Is it the Old Man in the Moon? _kaun jântâ hai?_ **xtnjohnson** , _dômo arigatô gozaimasu_ — I had looked up the Japanese names but didn’t know how to explain them. This is perhaps the most interesting set of meanings yet. The Sun and Moon matching the other systems (probably via Buddhism from India, originally Babylonian), plus the five elements of Chinese cosmology: Fire, Water, Wood, Metal, Earth. The Japanese use “Gold” to stand for Metal. Nice. So I guess the traditional Chinese names must have followed this pattern, and the modern numerical names are a Red Chinese reform? I gotta ask my acupuncturist about this! I noticed that _sui_ for ‘Water’ is a Chinese _on kanji_ word; aren’t these all _on_ Chinese words in Japanese? I am certain that the Lithuanian numerical names must have been a replacement for their original mythological names. Lithuania was the last pagan country in Europe — they didn’t go Christian until the fourteenth century. A few very ancient Lithuanian folksongs survive, using the Sun, Moon, and other cosmic symbols to preserve the metaphysical wisdom of the ancient sages from being lost. They knew that folksongs are more likely to endure than any other form of cultural transmission. I wonder what the original Lithuanian names were? It would afford a glimpse into a deep level of Indo-European prehistory. What were the pre-Christian names in Greek? The same planetary pattern as the Babylonians’, I would venture. Are there any Koine Greek days of the week mentioned in the Septuagint or the New Testament? Any Bible scholars here? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-for-the-days-of-the-week/59842.md?page=3)