Names and their meaning: Weekdays

In ancient Rome, the weekdays got their names from planets, the sun and the moon. Every day was dominated by its own planet and its divine power: the sun, the moon, Mars, Mercurius, Jupiter, Venus, Saturnus.

In the Germanic languages, these names were translated, all names of planets named after Roman gods received names after Germanic gods.

Note: The Norwegian system of writing and spelling differs from English in the way that capitals are not used for names of days, months and nationalities.

Monday

The day of the Moon (måne), translated from Latin lunae

French: lundi

Tuesday

Tyr's day: the Old Norse God of war

Latin: dies Martis
French: mardi, from the planet Mars

Wednesday

Odin's day: Odin was the most powerful God of all in the Norse mythology

Thursday

Thor's day: Thor was the second greatest God after Odin. He is mostly known for his hammer with which he made thunder and ligthning, and for his two birds, Hugin and Munin.

Friday

The Roman love goddess Venus has her counterpart in the Nordic Freya; Old Norse Frigg and Freyja.

Saturday

Lørdag means "the day of the washing", the day of the week when people washed themselves! It was especially the hair they washed, in a special solution made out of lye of ashes (askelut) which made the hair yellowish or reddish. Laug means washingwater, and comes from 'lut' in 'askelut'.

Sunday

'søn' comes from Old Norse sunna = sun.