Etymologically
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Donnerstag

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈdɔnɐsˌtaːk/, /ˈdɔnɐsˌtax/, /ˈdɔnɐsˌtaːx/[1]

Forms

Donnerstag m (genitive Donnerstages or Donnerstags, plural Donnerstage)[1] Spellings with du- were common in the 13th century, those with do- prevail from the 14th, and dorn(s)- and donr(s)- are frequent in the 15th.[2] Paracelsus writes donstag.[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German donerstac, inherited from Old High German donarestag, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *Þunras dag (“day of the thunder god”), a loan translation from Latin Iovis diēs (“day of Jupiter”).[4][2][1] The Latin name, continued in Italian giovedì and French jeudi, refers to the planet Jupiter and so to the supreme sky god, and the Germanic peoples replaced him by their god of weather and thunder, Donar (see Donner).[4][5][6] Kluge suggests that this god was the highest among the farming population, and that the thunderbolt-hurling Latin Iuppiter tonāns (“thundering Jupiter”) made the equation easier.[4] The same name is Old English þunresdæg, Old Frisian thunresdei, Middle Dutch donresdach and Middle Low German dōnerdach, and today Dutch donderdag.[4][7] The Grimms' dictionary held that it was not a translation but a direct reference to the heathen thunder god.[3]

Old Norse þórsdagr, Swedish torsdag and English Thursday (through Norse influence on Old English) contain the Norse form of the god's name, Thor.[4][5][2] In Bavarian and Austrian dialects the day is Pfinztag, which goes back to Ancient Greek πέμπτη ἡμέρα (pémptē hēméra, “fifth day”) and was passed on by the mission of the Goths.[4][5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German donarestag is found only in glosses, from the 11th century, beginning with the glosses to Notker's Psalms, rendering dies Iovis, feria quinta and quinta sabbati.[7][8]

Semantic evolution

The Thursday of Holy Week has been called der grüene donerstac since the 13th century, as a compound Gründonnerstag since the 15th.[9][5] The Duden connects the name with the custom of eating something green that day, while Adelung, around 1800, reported the old guess that grün came from a word for Lent.[6][10] Regionally, fetter Donnerstag or schmutziger Donnerstag is the Thursday before Lent, when food fried in fat was still allowed.[11] The Grimms' dictionary records traces of the day's old sanctity: in 17th-century Mecklenburg it was believed that one should not spin on a Thursday.[3]

Timeline

  • 11th century – donarestag in the glosses to Notker's Psalms.[7][4]
  • 1190–1195 – Middle High German donerstac in the Lucidarius.[12]
  • 13th century – der grüene donerstac for the Thursday of Holy Week.[9]
  • 14th century – Spellings with do- begin to prevail over du-.[2]
  • 15th century – The compound Gründonnerstag.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Thursday, the fourth day of the week counted from Monday, between Wednesday and Friday.[11][1][13]

Word family

  • Gründonnerstag
  • Donner
  • Tag
  • English Thursday

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob Grimm und Wilhelm Grimm, Neubearbeitung (1965–2018), ed. Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften and Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, 9 vols. (A–F), Leipzig / Stuttgart: Hirzel, p. 6, 1241
  3. ^ a b c Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 2, 1252
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 211
  5. ^ a b c d Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  6. ^ a b c Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
  7. ^ a b c Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 2, 722
  8. ^ Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch (1952–), founded by Elisabeth Karg-Gasterstädt and Theodor Frings, Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag / De Gruyter; online awb.saw-leipzig.de, p. 2, 598
  9. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 378
  10. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
  11. ^ a b Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  12. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  13. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org