weekend

Pronunciation

• IPA: /wiːˈkɛnd/, /ˈwiːˌkɛnd/ (UK); /ˈwiˌkɛnd/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is a compound, from English week + end.^[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The end of the week (1638 in Merriam-Webster; 1630s in Etymonline).^[5][6][2]

Semantic evolution

According to Etymonline it was originally a northern English word for the time from Saturday noon to Monday morning;^[2] it became general after 1878, and by the end of the 19th century it usually included all of Saturday.^[2] Hendrickson dates the word to 1879 in England^[7] and says it was rarely used in America until the mid-1930s, since most Americans then worked six-day weeks;^[7] the first five-day, 40-hour workers were steelworkers (1923) and Ford employees (1926).^[7] The Historical Thesaurus dates the period between working weeks from 1793 and its leisure sense from 1879.^[8] Long weekend is recorded from 1900.^[2] As a verb, to spend the weekend, it dates from 1901,^[5][8] and a weekender was by 1880 a person who regularly spent it away from home.^[2] The adjective meaning “only at weekends”, part-time or amateur, as in weekend athletes, dates from 1935,^[2][5][9] and slang has the derisive weekend hippie and weekend junkie.^[10]

Timeline

• 1630s – first record.^[2][5]
• 1793 – the period between working weeks (Historical Thesaurus).^[8]
• 1878 – general use after this date.^[2]
• 1880 – weekender.^[2]
• 1900 – long weekend.^[2]
• 1901 – as a verb.^[5][6][8]
• 1935 – as an adjective, part-time.^[2][5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The end of the week, especially the time from Friday evening to Sunday evening, when most people do not work.
2. This period extended, for a holiday or visit.
3. (UK prison slang) A very short term of imprisonment.

Verb

1. To spend the weekend somewhere.

Adjective

1. Of, for or happening at the weekend.
2. Active in a role only at weekends or part-time; amateur or casual.

Word family

• weekender
• weekend bag
• weekend warrior

Related words

• weekday
• week
• weekly

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Hendrickson, Robert (2008), The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, 4th ed., New York: Facts on File
8. ^ a b c d Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
9. ^ Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
10. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com