Freitag

Forms

Freitag m (genitive Freitages or Freitags, plural Freitage)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German vrītac, inherited from Old High German frīatag, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *Frījā dag (“day of Frija”).^[2][3][1] Like the other names of weekdays it is a loan translation, from Late Latin Veneris diēs (“day of Venus”): the Germanic peoples equated the Roman goddess of love with their goddess Frija, the wife of Wodan.^[2][3][4][5] The Latin name was itself modelled on Ancient Greek Ἀφροδίτης ἡμέρα (Aphrodítēs hēméra, “day of Aphrodite”), and it lives on in French vendredi and Italian venerdì.^[2][3]

The same formation is Old Frisian frīadei, Old English frīgedæg and Middle Low German vrīdach, and today Dutch vrijdag, English Friday and Swedish fredag.^[2][6] The goddess's name, Old High German Frīa, Old Norse Frigg, meant “the beloved”;^[3][4] Pfeifer and the Duden connect it with the root of frei and with Sanskrit प्रिया (priyā́, “beloved”).^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record is in the Old High German Tatian of about 830, where frigetag is the day on which the chief priests and Pharisees came to Pilate;^[6][2] Kluge dates the word to the 9th century.^[6][2]

Semantic evolution

The meaning has stayed the same since Old High German: the day between Thursday and Saturday.^[6][7] The Middle High German form vrītac is found from the Bücher Mosis (1130–1140) on, and medieval charters were often dated by it, “on the next Friday after Saint Lucy's day”.^[8][6] Der stille Freitag and der gute Freitag were old names of Good Friday, now Karfreitag.^[9][7]

The Grimms' dictionary also records the sense “free day”, and the German Wiktionary treats Freitag “day off” as a compound of frei and Tag.^[9][10] Ein schwarzer Freitag is a day of financial disaster, after Friday 24 September 1869, when speculation ruined many American investors.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 830 – Old High German frigetag is used in the Tatian.^[6]
• 1130–1140 – Middle High German vrītac appears in the Bücher Mosis.^[8]
• 1350 – A Strasbourg charter is dated by the Friday after Saint Lucy's day.^[6]
• 1869 – A Friday of financial collapse in the United States gives the phrase schwarzer Freitag.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. Friday, the fifth day of the week, between Thursday and Saturday.^[7][1]
2. (rare) A free day, a day off.^[10][9]

Word family

• Karfreitag
• freitags

Related words

• frei
• Dienstag
• Donnerstag
• English Friday

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 317
3. ^ a b c d e Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
4. ^ a b c Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2014), 5th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin / Mannheim / Zürich: Dudenverlag, p. 302
5. ^ Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
6. ^ a b c d e f g 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. 9, 973
7. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ 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. 4, 122
10. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org