Welcome to the Tuesday edition of the Coffee Hour at Street Prophets. This is an open thread where we can discuss what’s happening in our lives, what we’ve been working on, and our opinions on current events. Today’s question: What’s your favorite day?
Let’s start off with a little bit of etymology. The English word “day” comes from the prehistoric Germanic *dauthaz which in turn comes from the Indo-European base *dhegh-. The underlying etymological meaning of day is “time when the sun is hot.”
Note: the * indicates that the Indo-European or prehistoric word has been reconstructed by historical linguists.
The concept of the day, marked by success periods of light and dark, has been one of the primary ways of measuring time. The ancient Egyptians grouped days into longer groupings of ten days which were marked by the appearance of special star groups or constellations called decans. Since there were 12 decans, the Egyptians divided each period of darkness and each period of daylight into 12 equal parts. This formed the basis of our current 24-hour day. In ancient Egypt, however, the length of the hour varied according to the season.
With the invention and acceptance of the mechanical clock in the 13th century, days were divided into 24 equal time periods. Now, the problem was: when should the daily count of the hours begin? In Italy, it began at sunset, thus 1 o’clock was one hour after sunset. Other places started the count at sunrise. Eventually most placed adopted the French scheme of dividing the day into two 12-hour periods which begin at midnight.
Monday means “moon day.” The English word “moon” is based on the Indo-European *mēnes- which meant both “moon” and “month.” This is a derivative of *me-, from which we get the English word “measure,” reflecting that fact that in the far distant past the passage of time was measured in moons.
Tuesday is named for Tiu, the Germanic god of war and the sky. The Romans had named their days after the gods, and when the Germanic people took over this Roman system replacing the day of Mars (the Roman god of war) with Tuesday.
Wednesday is named for the Germanic god Wodin or Odin. The Romans had previously named this day for Mercury.
Thursday is named for the Germanic god Thor, the god of thunder. The Romans had previously named this day for Jupiter, the sky god.
Friday is named for the Germanic goddess Frigg, the goddess of love and of the hearth. The Romans had previously named this day for Venus. Frigg is a major goddess of Germanic paganism and is described as the wife of Odin.
Saturday is named for Saturn.
Sunday is named for the sun.
We should also pause to point out that not all cultures have used the concept of a seven-day week. In addition, we should keep in mind that the idea of a weekend has been brought to us by unions and with unions under attack, so is the concept of the weekend.
Which one of these days is your favorite? Why?
This is an open thread: comments about politics, religion, legends, Ireland, food, pets, and whatever is on your mind are welcome.
What's for dinner?