Welcome to Wednesday! Well, not quite yet, but I’m continuing our days of the week adventure.
While most of the Romance languages we’re looking at name Wednesday after the Roman messenger god, Mercurii (Mercury), English has kept the day named after Woden, the Old English god of wisdom, healing, death, royalty, the gallows, war, battle, victory, poetry, and the runic alphabet. (Yep, he was a busy dude! According to Wikipedia, he also did some magic.) Here is a little bit from Dictionary.com:
The first records of the word Wednesday come from before 950. It comes from the Middle English Wednesdai, from the Old English Wōdnesdæg, meaning “Woden‘s day.” This is a translation of (or is modeled on) the Latin term Mercuriī diēs, meaning “Mercury’s day.” In Old English, the Roman god Mercury was subbed out in favor of Woden, the chief god of Anglo-Saxon mythology (equivalent to the Norse god Odin).
| English | Ancient Greek | Roman | Spanish | French | Italian | Romanian |
| Sunday | Day of the sun
(hemera helio) |
Day of the sun
(dies Solis) |
Domingo | Dimanche | Domenica | Duminică |
| Monday | Day of the moon
(hemera selenes) |
Day of the moon
(dies Lunae) |
Lunes | Lundi | Lunedi | Luni |
| Tuesday | Ares, war god | Martis, war god | Martes | Mardi | Martedì | Marţi |
| Wednesday | Hermes, messenger god | Mercurii, messenger god | Miércoles | Mercredi | Mercoledì | Miercuri |
| Thursday | Zeus, god of sky/thunder | Jovis (Jove/Jupiter), sky and thunder god | Jueves | Jeudi | Giovedì | Joi |
| Friday | Aphrodite, love goddess | Veneris (Venus), love goddess | Viernes | Vendredit | Venerdì | Vineri |
| Saturday |
Kronos, time god |
Saturn, father of Jupiter | Sábado | Samedi | Sabato | Sâmbătă |
Woden (Odin)
Winged sandal of Hermes (Mercury) the messenger god
Here’s wishing you a happy Wodenesday tomorrow!
Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Technical Publications
Pronouns: she/her | (619) 542-6773 | jackhenry.com
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