It's all Latin to us...

[rebness]

What started off as a little aside in my previous post became the sort of academic discussion that makes me come over all geeky and very, very happy. So, thanks to the doubly nefarious and splendid input of ozfille, verastar99 and saffronlie, here is more than you ever wanted to know about the naming of the months and the days of the week:

Months of the Year

January -- Janus, the two-headed God o’D00m (I bet he was an Aquarian. Go, us!)
February – After Februa, the Roman festival of purification
March – Mars
April– Aphrodite
May– Maia, the Italian goddess of spring
June– The goddess Juno
July – Julius Caesar
August– Augustus Caesar
September– Seven
October– Eight, duh
November– Nine, ditto
December – Ten, ibid

Days of the Week

English            French            Latin           Nordic

Monday            Lundi               Moon           Moon

Tuesday            Mardi              Mars            Tiw

Wednesday      Mercredi          Mercury       Woden

Thursday          Jeudi                Jupiter           Thor

Friday              Vendredi          Venus           Freya

Saturday          Samedi             Saturn           Saturn

Sunday            Dimanche         "Sun"             Sun

The link with the sun has been broken in French, but Sunday was called dies solis (day of the sun) in Latin.

It is interesting to note that also some Asiatic languages (for example, Hindi, Japanese, and Korean) have a similar relationship between the week days and the planets.

ETA: kyuuketsukirui informs me that Japanese also references the sun for Sunday, and the moon for Monday. Dude!

English has retained the original planets in the names for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. For the four other days, however, the names of Anglo-Saxon or Nordic gods have replaced the Roman gods that gave name to the planets. Thus, Tuesday is named after Tiw, Wednesday is named after Woden, Thursday is named after Thor, and Friday is named after Freya.

And so there we have it. Most informative LJ around, baby!*

*Possibly sheer hyperbole, and a lie, to boot.

Comments

[saffronlie.livejournal.com]

By 'informative' you actually mean pretentious. I know, what would you do without me to correct you?

[rebness.livejournal.com]

>:O

I think you should probably hurry up with that DVO, because I'm gonna pound you good!

[saffronlie.livejournal.com]

I'm so not going to joke about court orders anymore after working in a law office! (Jokes about conveyancing and veterans' affairs, however, are totally welcome. And also about those whingers who claim personal injuries)

[rebness.livejournal.com]

Conveyancing was why, when I was temping a couple of years ago, I decided that staying in bed one Wednesday was preferable to going to work. >:

[saffronlie.livejournal.com]

I KNOW. Most boring work known to man. I can't decide which I hate more, that or personal injuries. Give me criminal work any day, that's where all the juicy stuff is!

[rebness.livejournal.com]

Mental Health is where it's at, baby!

[saffronlie.livejournal.com]

I typed a letter to someone in the acute mental health unit and I thought of you. :D

[rebness.livejournal.com]

Bless. :)

Though I hope I remind you of less depressing stuff, too. o.O