day

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English day, also dai,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English dæg,^[5][2][3][6] from Proto-Germanic *dagaz.^[7][1][8] Its cognates include Old Saxon dag, Dutch dag, Old Frisian dei, Old High German tag, German Tag, Old Norse dagr and Gothic 𐌳𐌰𐌲𐍃 (dags).^[5][3][9] A form with a lengthened vowel and a different stem is seen in Old English dōgor and dœgr (“twelve-hour period”).^[9][8][10] The further origin is uncertain.^[9] One view, followed by Watkins and the American Heritage Dictionary, connects it with Proto-Indo-European *agh- (“a day”), although the Germanic initial d- is then hard to explain;^[5][2][9] Barnhart notes the same three-way pattern of stems in Avestan azan- (“day”).^[3] The other derives it from Proto-Indo-European *dʰegʷʰ- (“to burn”), comparing Lithuanian dãgas (“summer heat”), so that a day would be the time when the sun is hot;^{[7][4][11][12]} the OED finds difficulties with both.^[9] It is not related to Latin diēs (“day”).^[5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The time of daylight between two nights: Old English, in Ælfric.^[9] Etymonline glosses Old English dæg as "the period during which the sun is above the horizon", and also "lifetime".^[5] Barnhart finds the Old English word in Beowulf (about 725) and the Middle English dai probably before 1200, in Layamon's Chronicle of Britain.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word first meant the hours of daylight and was extended to the period of 24 hours in late Anglo-Saxon times;^[5] in early use this was reckoned from sunrise to sunrise, later usually from midnight.^[9] Etymonline notes that the day once began at sunset, so that Old English Wodnesniht was what is now called Tuesday night.^[5] From Old English the word also meant a lifetime and a period marked by some person or event;^[13] since 1546 it has also meant the time when a person or thing is at its height.^[13] A day of battle, as in to win the day, is recorded from 1557.^[13] Johnson (1755) gave as the first sense "the time between the rising and setting of the sun, called the artificial day".^[14] The working sense, the part of the day given to work or study, dates from 1637,^[9] and the use for a corresponding period on another planet from 1698.^[9] The day, a day on which something important is expected, is recorded from 1882, and the colloquial "a day full of events" (what a day) from 1918.^[9] The -s of nowadays keeps the old adverbial genitive.^[5][15]

Timeline

• c. 725 – Old English dæg, in Beowulf.^[3]
• Old English – daylight; a period of 24 hours; a particular day; a lifetime.^[9][13]
• before 1200 – Middle English dai, in Layamon.^[3]
• c. 1390 – a day's journey.^[9]
• 1546 – a person's or thing's prime.^[13]
• 1557 – a day of battle; a contest.^[13]
• 1637 – the part of a day given to work or study.^[9]
• 1698 – the corresponding period on another planet.^[9]
• 1882 – the day, a day on which something important is expected.^[9]
• 1883 – day off.^[5]
• 1918 – a day full of events or effort.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The period of light between sunrise and sunset: The cat sleeps all day.^[16][10][9]
2. A period of 24 hours, usually from one midnight to the next: The trip took three days.^[16][10]
3. The time the Earth, or another planet, takes to turn once on its axis.^[16][10][9]
4. The part of a day given to work or other regular activity: She works a seven-hour day.^[16][9]
5. A particular day, or one set aside for some purpose or event.^[9][16]
6. Often in the plural: a period or point in time; an era, or a person's lifetime: in my grandfather's day.^[16][9][13]
7. The time of a person's or thing's greatest success: Silent films had their day.^[13]
8. A day of battle; a contest, as in win the day.^[13]

Word family

• daily
• daylight
• daybreak
• daytime
• daydream
• today
• nowadays
• midday

Related words

• Sunday
• Monday
• Tuesday
• Wednesday
• Thursday
• Friday
• Saturday
• dawn

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
16. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins