Sunday

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English sondai, also sonnedai, sunedai and sunnendai,^[2][3][4][5] inherited from Old English sunnandæg, Northumbrian sunnadæg,^[6][7][8] made up of sunnan, the genitive or oblique case of sunne (“sun”), and dæg (“day”), so "day of the sun".^[6][9][4] It is one of a set of Germanic loan translations of Latin diēs sōlis (“day of the sun”), itself a loan translation of Ancient Greek ἡμέρα ἡλίου (hēméra hēlíou).^{[6][4][10][11][7]} The others are Old Frisian sunnandei, Old Saxon sunnundag, Middle Low German sunnendach, Middle Dutch sonnendach (now Dutch zondag) and Old High German sunnūntag (now German Sonntag);^[9][4][10] the OED takes Old Norse sunnudagr, Swedish söndag and Danish søndag to follow West Germanic forms.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The day after Saturday: Barnhart dates Sunnandæg to before 700,^[4] and the OED's first record is in the Laws of Ine.^[9] Barnhart's first Middle English form is sunedai, about 1250, in Genesis and Exodus.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The Romans took a seven-day week named after the planets, and the Germanic peoples translated the names, putting their own gods in place of the Roman ones; for the sun and the moon no such change was needed, so Sunday and Monday keep the planet's name.^[12][9] The Romance languages went another way, with Ecclesiastical Latin dies dominicus, the Lord's day, the source of French dimanche and Spanish domingo,^[9][13][12] while Welsh dydd sul keeps the old name.^[13] The Old English word was already bound up with Christian observance: the laws enjoined keeping the day, and Wihtræd's laws set it from sunset on Saturday to sunset on Sunday.^[14] In early religious use it sometimes rendered Latin sabbatum, because both were days of rest.^[9] The word's associations with church and best behaviour produced many compounds: Sunday clothes (1640s), Sunday school (1783, first set up by Robert Raikes in Gloucester), Sunday best (by 1834) and Sunday driver (1925), first of someone who drove only to church and back.^[6][15][4] A Sunday man was a debtor who dared to go out only on Sundays, when he was safe from arrest.^[16][17] The verb, to spend Sunday, appears in 1854.^[9] sundae is thought to be an alteration of the word.^[6]

Timeline

• before 700 – Sunnandæg, the first day of the week.^[4][9]
• c. 1250 – Middle English sunedai.^[4]
• before 1387 – adverb, in the plural, on Sundays.^[9]
• 1640s – Sunday clothes, one's best clothes.^[6][15]
• 1759 – a month of Sundays, a very long time.^[9]
• 1780 – plural noun, Sunday clothes.^[9]
• 1783 – Sunday school.^[6][4][15]
• 1841 – a Sunday newspaper, in a letter of Dickens.^[9]
• 1854 – verb, to spend Sunday.^[9]
• 1925 – Sunday driver.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The day after Saturday and before Monday, kept by most Christians as a day of rest and worship; traditionally the first day of the week.^[11][5][9]
2. A newspaper published on this day, usually in the plural: We read the Sundays over breakfast.^[5][9][8]
3. Sundays: one's best clothes.^[9][8]

Adjective

1. Of, on or typical of this day: Sunday lunch.^[5][8]
2. Doing something only in spare time; amateur: a Sunday golfer.^[5]

Adverb

1. On Sunday, or on Sundays: We left Sunday.^[9][8]

Verb

1. To spend Sunday: They Sundayed at the lake.^[5][9][8]

Word family

• Sundaylike
• sundae
• Sunday-go-to-meeting
• Sunday clothes
• Sunday driver
• Sunday painter

Related words

• sun
• day

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
14. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
15. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
16. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
17. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com