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jueves

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word jueves

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1215 Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca, in a 14th-century copy More words from the 13th century
Inherited from
Latin Iovis via Old Spanish
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European *dyḗws

Pronunciation

  • /ˈxwebes/, [ˈxwe.β̞es][1]

Forms

jueves m (plural jueves)[1] Old Spanish wrote jueves, iueves, yueves and joues; in Puerto Rico xueves is recorded in 1519.[2][1][3] Leonese kept the full Latin phrase as die yoves in a charter of 1250;[1] Asturian has xueves and the hypercorrect fueves.[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish jueves, inherited from Latin Iovis (“of Jupiter”), short for the phrase diēs Iovis (“day of Jupiter”).[4][5][6][1] This is the genitive of the god's name, whose nominative is Iuppiter.[7][1]

The same phrase gave Catalan dijous, French jeudi and Italian giovedì.[8][1][9] Wiktionary explains the god's nominative as the old vocative of his name combined with the word for “father”, from *djous (“day, sky”) and *patēr (“father”), and traces his name to Proto-Indo-European *dyḗws (“sky, the bright one”).[1] De Vaan connects diēs (“day”) with the same word: it was built on the accusative of the name of the sky god.[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to the earliest texts, with Berceo, and his Breve diccionario to 1220–1250.[4][5] The CDH's first hit is the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca (c. 1215, in a 14th-century copy): antes del jueves de la çena “before Maundy Thursday”.[11] Berceo's Sacrificio de la misa also speaks of El jueves de la cena.[11] The first hit in a contemporary document is an agreement of 1238 from Irache, which gives meat rations on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.[11]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's Lapidario (1250–1279) links the day with the planet: a stone works if one asks a favour of God el dia del iueues at the hour of Jupiter.[12] Nebrija (c. 1495) gave Latin dies iouis and feria quinta.[13] Autoridades counted it the fifth day of the week and said it took its name from Jupiter, to whom the Egyptians gave the first hour of the day; it recorded Jueves de la Cena or Jueves Santo, and cosa del otro jueves for something rare.[14] The Academy's dictionary of 1817 explains this phrase as something very strange, difficult or seldom seen.[15]

Carnival names include jueves lardero or gordo, the Thursday just before carnival, and jueves de comadres and de compadres, the Thursdays before it.[16][6] In the Canaries the jueves de comadres was the day when unmarried girls organised the dance, as a record of 1778 shows.[17] In Bolivia the same names are festivals before carnival.[18] The DLE now counts Thursday as the fourth day of the civil week and the fifth of the liturgical one.[6][19]

Timeline

  • c. 1215 – jueves de la çena in the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca (in a 14th-century copy).[11]
  • 1220–1250 – Corominas's date, from Berceo.[5][4]
  • 1238 – iueues in an agreement from Irache, the first hit in a contemporary document.[11]
  • 1250 – die yoves in a Leonese charter.[4]
  • c. 1495 – Nebrija gives dies iouis and feria quinta.[13]
  • 1519 – first record in the Americas, xueves, in Puerto Rico.[3]
  • 1726–1739 – Autoridades records cosa del otro jueves.[14]
  • 1778 – jueves de comadres in the Canaries.[17]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Thursday: the fourth day of the civil week and the fifth of the liturgical week: Los jueves cenamos en casa de mis padres.[6][19][1]
  2. The letter J in the Spanish spelling alphabet.[1]

Word family

  • juernes
  • Jueves Santo
  • jueves lardero
  • día
  • jovial
  • Catalan dijous
  • French jeudi

Usage notes

The plural is the same as the singular (los jueves).[1] Jueves Santo is Maundy Thursday, formerly also jueves de la cena.[1][20] Cosa del otro jueves is something out of the ordinary.[14][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. jueves
  3. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. jueves
  4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 536
  5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. jueves
  6. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. jueves
  7. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. jueves
  8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. jovis
  9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. jeudi
  10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. diēs
  11. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. jueves
  12. ^ Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. jueves
  13. ^ a b Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. jueves
  14. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 327
  15. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 509
  16. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. jueves
  17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. jueves
  18. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. jueves
  19. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. jueves
  20. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 618

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Jueves.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/jueves. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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