Etymologically
Log in

lunes

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the Spanish word lunes

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1218–1250 Fuero de Zorita de los Canes More words from the 13th century
Inherited from
Latin dies Lunis
Ultimate origin
Latin luna

Pronunciation

  • /ˈlunes/, [ˈlu.nes][1]

Forms

lunes m (plural lunes)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin (diēs) Lūnis (“(day) of the Moon”), a form found in inscriptions, shortened to its second word.[2][3][4] Classical Latin said diēs Lūnae or Lūnae diēs, “the day sacred to the Moon”, with the genitive of lūna (“moon”).[2][1][5] Corominas and Gómez de Silva explain Lūnis as an alteration after the genitives of the next days' names, Martis, Iovis and Veneris.[2][6][7] Bénaben describes the change differently: the Latin phrase gave an older *lune, which took its final /s/ from martes, jueves and viernes.[8] García de Diego likewise explains the ending by that of the name of Tuesday.[9]

The Latin name is continued by French lundi, Occitan luns, Catalan dilluns, Italian lunedì, Sardinian lunis and Romanian luni.[10][1] Catalan, French and Italian kept the word for “day” before or after the Moon's name, as in the Classical phrase.[9][11][10] The Romans named the days of the week after the seven planets, and Gómez de Silva considers the Latin name a translation of the Greek “day of the Moon”.[11][7] diēs goes back to Proto-Indo-European *dyḗws (“sky”).[12][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record that survives in an early copy is the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250), which forbids distraint on Sundays and on Mondays because of the market: Ni el dia del lunes, por el mercado.[13] The DEMel cites the form lunnes in documents of 1127 and 1129 from the reconquest of the Ebro valley.[14] Corominas's first dates are an astrological manuscript of the 13th century, probably of Alfonso X's time, and the Primera Crónica General of about 1295.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's Lapidario links the day to the Moon: a green stone “of the nature of the Moon” has Monday as its ruler.[15] Spanish has used both el lunes and el día lunes;[2] Corominas notes the construction with día in Leonese and in the Spanish of the Río de la Plata and Chile.[2] Nebrija and Covarrubias give the ecclesiastical name feria secunda as its equivalent, and Autoridades explains that the day was named after the Moon, to which the Egyptians gave the rule of its first hour.[16][17][18] Portuguese uses the ecclesiastical numbering instead, Portuguese segunda-feira.[19]

Until 1899 the Academy called Monday the second day of the week; its 2001 edition calls it the first day of the week and the second of the liturgical week, and the DLE now gives only the first.[20][21][3] In the Americas hacer San Lunes or hacer lunes means to take Monday off after a Sunday of drinking: Malaret records it in Bolivia, Chile, Guatemala, Mexico and Peru, and Bayo describes the San Lunes of the taverns of Cochabamba as a mock saint of drunkenness.[22][23][24] Colombia has lunes de zapatero for a working Monday that is taken off.[25] The word passed into Tagalog, Cebuano and other languages of the Philippines as Lunes.[1]

Timeline

  • 1127 – the DEMel cites lunnes in a document from the reconquest of the Ebro valley.[14]
  • 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes forbids distraint on Mondays, market day.[13]
  • 1238 – an agreement of the abbot of Irache lists meals al lunes, al miercores, al viernes.[13]
  • 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario makes Monday the ruler of a stone.[15]
  • c. 1295 – the Primera Crónica General, Corominas's first dated record.[2][6]
  • c. 1495 – Nebrija: lunes dia, Latin dies lunae, feria secunda.[16]
  • 1529 – the first record from the Americas, in Nicaragua.[26]
  • 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as the day after Sunday, feria segunda in the church office.[17]
  • 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first gives the etymology, Latin Lunae dies.[5]
  • 2001 – the Academy calls it the first day of the week, the second of the liturgical week.[21]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Monday, the first day of the week, between domingo and martes: Los lunes abro la tienda más tarde.[3][1]
  • luna
  • martes
  • día
  • French lundi
  • Catalan dilluns

Usage notes

The plural is the same as the singular: el lunes, los lunes.[1] The colloquial phrase cada lunes y cada martes means “all the time, every other day”.[3][27] In Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica the saying el lunes ni las gallinas ponen “on Monday not even the hens lay” describes the reluctance to start the week's work.[25]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 712
  3. ^ 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. lunes
  4. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. lunes
  5. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 655
  6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. luna
  7. ^ a b Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. lunes
  8. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. lunes
  9. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 3983
  10. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  11. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  13. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. lunes
  14. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. lunes
  15. ^ a b 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. lunes
  16. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 373
  17. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1095
  18. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 440
  19. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. segunda-feira
  20. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 612
  21. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. lunes
  22. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 513
  23. ^ Batres Jáuregui, Antonio (1892), Vicios del lenguaje y provincialismos de Guatemala, Guatemala: Encuadernación y Tipografía Nacional, p. 367
  24. ^ Bayo, Ciro (1910), Vocabulario criollo-español sud-americano, Madrid: Hernando, p. 126
  25. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. lunes
  26. ^ 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. lunes
  27. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. lunes

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Lunes.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/lunes. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·