Etymologically
Log in

weekend

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 14 October 2026 at 21:03. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

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

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