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From: andersa@kuling.UUCP (Anders Andersson)
Newsgroups: net.nlang,net.origins
Subject: Re: Days of the week
Message-ID: <859@kuling.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 5-Dec-85 00:51:12 EST
Article-I.D.: kuling.859
Posted: Thu Dec  5 00:51:12 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 8-Dec-85 03:19:56 EST
References: <174@watmath.UUCP> <262@ho95e.UUCP> <674@spar.UUCP>
Reply-To: andersa@kuling.UUCP (Anders Andersson)
Organization: Uppsala University, Sweden
Lines: 34
Xref: watmath net.nlang:3868 net.origins:2692

In article <674@spar.UUCP> ellis@spar.UUCP (Michael Ellis) writes:
>Object   French        English     Danish    Teutonic Names
>
>sun	  [dimanche]	sunday      s0ndag    sun
>moon	  lundi		monday      mandag    moon
>mars  	  mardi		tuesday     tirsdag   E.Tiw
>mercury  mercredi	wednesday   onsdag    E.Weden, G.Wotan, S.Odin
>jupiter  jeudi		thursday    torsdag   G.Donner/S.Thor
>venus	  vendredi	friday      fredag    G.Freia+Fricka
>saturn	  [samedi]	[saturday]  loerdag   E.{low/ley=flame},G.Loge,S.Loki
>
>    Tiw, which is cognate with ju-piter and zeus (IE. dy[eo]us = `day,sky'),
>    was equated with mars; the teutonic king of the gods (weden) was equated
>    with mercury; the god of thunder (thor) with jupiter; and the sly god
>    of fire (loki) with saturn. These equations make no sense whatsoever!
>
>    Can anybody explain this? 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?

Maybe nobody put any effort in making equations at all? I guess that these
names have developed independently of each other, and that in the past
different languages adopted different mixes of them, regardless of origin.

E.Tiw = S.Tyr, it seems?

"Loerdag" (the same in both Swedish and Danish) is not derived from the name
of the god Loke, but from "loegardag", or the day you wash yourself. "Loega"
(to wash) is an almost extinct Swedish word today (I don't know for Danish).
No, the custom once so named is however not extinct, fortunately...
-- 
Anders Andersson, Dept. of Computer Systems, Uppsala University, Sweden
Phone: +46 18 183170
UUCP: andersa@kuling.UUCP (...!{seismo,mcvax}!enea!kuling!andersa)