Wednesday
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Wednesday is the
In English, the name is derived from
Wednesday is in the middle of the common
Etymology
- See Names of the days of the week for more on naming conventions.
The name
The name is a
The Latin name dates to the late 2nd or early 3rd century. It is a calque of Greek ἡμέρα Ἕρμου (heméra Hérmou), a term first attested, together with the system of naming the seven weekdays after the seven classical planets, in the Anthologiarum by Vettius Valens (c. AD 170).
The Latin name is reflected directly in the weekday name in most modern Romance languages: mércuris (Sardinian), mercredi (French), mercoledì (Italian), miércoles (Spanish), miercuri (Romanian), dimecres (Catalan), marcuri or mercuri (Corsican), mèrcore (Venetian). In Welsh it is Dydd Mercher, meaning 'Mercury's Day'.
The Dutch name for the day, woensdag, has the same etymology as English Wednesday; it comes from Middle Dutch wodenesdag, woedensdag ('Wodan's day').
The German name for the day, Mittwoch (literally: 'mid-week'), replaced the former name Wodenstag ('Wodan's day') in the 10th century. (Similarly, the Yiddish word for Wednesday is מיטוואך (mitvokh), meaning and sounding a lot like the German word it came from.)
Most Slavic languages follow this pattern and use derivations of 'the middle' (Belarusian серада serada, Bulgarian сряда sryada, Croatian srijeda, Czech středa, Macedonian среда sreda, Polish środa, Russian среда sredá, Serbian среда sreda or cриједа srijeda, Slovak streda, Slovene sreda, Ukrainian середа sereda). The Finnish name is keskiviikko ('middle of the week'), as is the Icelandic name: miðvikudagur, and the Faroese name: mikudagur ('mid-week day'). Some dialects of Faroese have ónsdagur, though, which shares etymology with Wednesday. Danish, Norwegian, Swedish onsdag, (Ons-dag meaning Odens dag 'Odin's day').
In Japanese, the word for Wednesday is 水曜日 (sui youbi) meaning 'water day' and is associated with 水星 (suisei): Mercury (the planet), literally meaning 'water star'. Similarly, in Korean the word for Wednesday is 수요일; su yo il, also meaning 'water day'.
In most of the languages of India, the word for Wednesday is Budhavāra — vāra meaning 'day' and Budha being the planet Mercury.
In Armenian (Չորեքշաբթի chorekshabti), Georgian (ოთხშაბათი otkhshabati), Turkish (çarşamba), and Tajik (chorshanbiyev) languages the word literally means 'four (days) from Saturday' originating from Persian (چهارشنبه cheharshanbeh).
Religious observances
![A priest marks a cross of ashes on a worshipper's forehead.](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cf/US_Navy_080206-N-7869M-057_Electronics_Technician_3rd_Class_Leila_Tardieu_receives_the_sacramental_ashes_during_an_Ash_Wednesday_celebration.jpg/220px-US_Navy_080206-N-7869M-057_Electronics_Technician_3rd_Class_Leila_Tardieu_receives_the_sacramental_ashes_during_an_Ash_Wednesday_celebration.jpg)
The Creation narrative in the Hebrew Bible places the creation of the Sun and Moon on "the fourth day" of the divine workweek.
The
In Irish and Scottish Gaelic, the name for Wednesday also refers to fasting, as it is Dé Céadaoin in Irish Gaelic and Di-Ciadain in Scottish Gaelic, which comes from chéad, meaning 'first', and aoine, meaning 'fasting', which combined means 'first day of fasting'.[3]
In American culture many
In the Catholic devotion of the
Wednesday is the day of the week devoted by the Catholic tradition to Saint Joseph.
In Hinduism, Budha is the god of Mercury (planet), Wednesday, and of merchants and merchandise. Krishna, Vithoba, and Ganesha are also worshipped on Wednesday.
Cultural usage
According to the Thai solar calendar, the color associated with Wednesday is green.[4]
In the folk rhyme Monday's Child, "Wednesday's child is full of woe". In the rhyme Solomon Grundy, Grundy was "married on Wednesday". In Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day, the disagreeable nature of the weather is attributed to it being "Winds-Day" (a play on Wednesday). In Richard Brautigan's In Watermelon Sugar Wednesday is the day when the sun shines grey.[full citation needed] Wednesday Friday Addams is a member of the fictional family The Addams Family. Her name is derived from the idea that Wednesday's child is full of woe. Additionally, Wednesday sometimes appears as a character's name in literary works. These include Thursday's fictions by Richard James Allen, Wednesday Next from the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde and Neil Gaiman's novel American Gods. In the 1945 John Steinbeck novel Sweet Thursday, the titular day is preceded by "Lousy Wednesday".
Wednesday is sometimes informally referred to as "
In Poland Wednesday night is often referred by young people as "time of vodka", after song by Bartosz Walaszek "Środowa noc to wódy czas"
Astrology
The astrological sign of the planet Mercury, ☿, represents Wednesday—dies Mercurii to the Romans, it had similar names in Latin-derived languages, such as the Italian mercoledì (dì means 'day'), the French mercredi, and the Spanish miércoles. In English, this became "Woden's Day", since the Roman god Mercury was identified by Woden in Northern Europe and it is especially aligned by the astrological signs of Gemini and Virgo.
Named days
- Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent in the Western Christian tradition, occurs forty-six days before Easter (forty, not counting Sundays).
- Black Wednesday, the day of a financial crisis in the United Kingdom
- Holy Wednesday, sometimes called Spy Wednesday in allusion to the betrayal of Jesus by Judas Iscariot, is the Wednesday immediately preceding Easter.
- Red Wednesday, the Yezidi festival celebrated in Iraq[8]
References
- ^ "ISO 8601-1:2019(en) Date and time — Representations for information interchange — Part 1: Basic rules". www.iso.org. Retrieved 2024-05-14.
- ^ "Guide to Quaker Calendar Names". Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). Retrieved 30 March 2017.
In the 20th Century, many Friends began accepting use of the common date names, feeling that any pagan meaning has been forgotten. The numerical names continue to be used, however, in many documents and more formal situations."
- ^ "The Days of the Week in Irish". Bitesizeirishgaelic.com. 4 August 2012. Retrieved 7 August 2014.
- ^ "Did you know that in Thailand, there's an auspicous color for every… | Thai Language School Bangkok | Duke Language". dukelanguage.com. 2 January 2014. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
- ^ "Definition of hump day in English". Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on November 4, 2013. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
- ^ "Wednesday". The Hans India.
- ^ Woolsey, Barbara. "Lillördag: Sweden's workers de-stress with 'Little Saturday'". BBC. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
- .