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From: carnes@gargoyle.UUCP (Richard Carnes)
Newsgroups: net.nlang,net.origins
Subject: Re: Days of the week (esp. Saturday)
Message-ID: <266@gargoyle.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 6-Dec-85 17:51:46 EST
Article-I.D.: gargoyle.266
Posted: Fri Dec  6 17:51:46 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 7-Dec-85 19:50:04 EST
References: <174@watmath.UUCP> <262@ho95e.UUCP> <674@spar.UUCP> <1328@jhunix.UUCP>
Reply-To: carnes@gargoyle.UUCP (Richard Carnes)
Organization: U. of Chicago, Computer Science Dept.
Lines: 50
Xref: watmath net.nlang:3863 net.origins:2687
Summary: 

>> And why do we call it `saturday' rather than
>> `leyday/lowday', which is what I suspect would be the AngloSaxon 
>> equivalent of Danish `loerdag' if it had survived?
>
>... I think it may have something
>to do with the "Romanization" of the language by the Normans after 1066.

No -- it is related to the fact that the British Isles did not come
under Christian influence until several centuries after most of the
rest of Europe.  The origin of the 7-day week is an interesting
story:

The astrological week of seven days (named after the seven ancient
"planets") evolved in Alexandria around the 2nd century B.C.  After
Julius Caesar conquered Egypt in the 1st century B.C., the
astrological week spread through the areas ruled by Rome.  The Jewish
seven-day week evolved independently.  The early Christians knew
Saturday as the Jewish "Shabbath," and adopted this name for "dies
Saturni."  (The Jews identified the Sabbath and Saturn's Day, and
named the planet Saturn after the Sabbath.  Some of the ancients
speculated that the Shabbath was a good day to take a rest anyway,
since it was inauspicious as belonging to Saturn! -- cf. the word
"saturnine.")  Christians also changed Sunday ("dies Soli") to "the
Lord's day" ("dies Domini") but retained the astrological names for
the other days of the week, since they had no particular religious
significance.  (The early Christians associated the Lord with the sun
in various ways; e.g., December 25 was chosen to celebrate Christ's
nativity at least in part because it was traditionally the "birthday"
of the sun after the winter solstice.)  

Christian influence spread rapidly in the Empire, and today the
Romance languages use the Christian names for Saturday (sabato (It.),
sabado (Sp.), samedi (Fr.)) and for Sunday (domingo, dimanche, etc.).
However, Rome lost control of Britain early on, and there was little
or no Christianization of Britain for several centuries into the
Christian era.  Consequently the astrological names became
established, and today English, the Celtic languages of the British
Isles, and Dutch are the only European languages which retain the
astrological name for Saturday, as also for Sunday, along with
German, Danish, and some others.  The days which are named after
Teutonic gods were apparently named by an attempt to identify these
gods with Roman counterparts.

German speakers, however, scored a coup by naming Wednesday
"Midweek," which must help German speakers get through a tough week.

The full story on the week can be found in the ultimate book on the
subject, *The Seven-Day Circle* by E. Zerubavel.
-- 
Richard Carnes, ihnp4!gargoyle!carnes