Etymologically
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Mittwoch

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈmɪtvɔx/, [ˈmɪt.vɔχ], [-ʋɔχ][1]

Forms

Mittwoch m (genitive Mittwochs or (rare) Mittwoches, plural Mittwoche)[1] The word was originally feminine, and Central German writers of the 18th century such as Lessing still wrote die Mittwoche.[2][3] It became masculine after the other names of weekdays, at first with weak inflection (an einem Mittwochen), which lasted long in Upper German.[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German mittewoche, inherited from Old High German mittawehha, a compound from Old High German mitti (“middle”) + wehha (“week”), that is “the middle of the week”.[4][3][5] It translates from Ecclesiastical Latin media hebdomas (“middle of the week”), itself modelled on Greek usage.[4] Pfeifer cites Ancient Greek ἑβδομάς (hebdomás, “group of seven; week”).[3] The modern words are Mitte and Woche.[3]

When the ancient names of the weekdays were taken over, the day of Mercury, or in its Germanic rendering the day of Wodan, was widely avoided in favour of this name, which was originally Jewish and Christian.[4] The Duden sees in it the Church's wish to erase the memory of the pagan gods.[5] The older name lives on in Dutch woensdag, English Wednesday and Swedish onsdag, “Wodan's (Odin's) day”, after Latin Mercuriī diēs, which gave French mercredi.[3][5] Its only German trace is the regional Middle High German guotentac, with ⟨g⟩ for ⟨w⟩ by dissimilation.[1] Middle Low German middewēke is the Middle Low German equivalent.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German mittawehha is recorded around 1000, in Notker and in glosses, meaning “Wednesday”.[3][6] The phrase mittiu wecha renders Latin quarta sabbati “the fourth day of the week”.[7] Kluge dates the word to the 11th century.[4]

Semantic evolution

The Middle High German forms were many: mittewoche, mitwoche, mittache, mittich, mitke and others; the first record Köbler gives is in the Kaiserchronik of about 1150.[8] The name first marked the middle day between Sunday and Saturday, and is now often understood as the middle of the working week.[1] The compound Aschermittwoch names the first day of Lent.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 1000 – Old High German mittawehha in Notker.[3][6]
  • c. 1150 – Middle High German mittewoche in the Kaiserchronik.[8]
  • 1275 – The word appears in charters.[8]
  • 18th century – Lessing still uses the feminine die Mittwoche.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Wednesday, the third day of the week counted from Monday.[9][1][10]

Word family

  • Aschermittwoch
  • mittwochs

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  3. ^ a b c d e f g 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 d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 628
  5. ^ a b c d Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 559
  6. ^ a b Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 227
  7. ^ Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 6, 516
  8. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  9. ^ Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  10. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org