martes

Forms

martes m (plural martes)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish martes, inherited from Latin Mārtis diēs (“day of Mars”), the day being consecrated to the god.^[2][3][4][1] Spanish kept only the genitive of Mārs, the Roman god of war, with its final -s.^[2][5] Gómez de Silva describes the Roman name as a translation of the Greek name of the day, “day of Ares”.^[5]

The same Latin phrase gave Italian martedì, French mardi, Romanian marți and Sardinian martis.^[6][7] The -s of lunes is not Latin: Corominas explains it from the endings of this word, jueves and viernes.^[8]

Wiktionary derives the god's name from the older form Māvors; its further origin is uncertain, and de Vaan discusses the Oscan and Umbrian names of the god.^[1][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word from a document of 1219, and the DEMel has it in the Anales toledanos of the same year.^[2][10] The Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250) gives water to the gardens dos dias en la semana, el martes et el miercoles, “two days a week, Tuesday and Wednesday”.^[11] The fueros of Cáceres and Usagre still mix the word with Latin, in die dominico, et die martes, in a rule on the days women may use the baths.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Nebrija gave Latin dies martis and feria tertia “the third weekday”.^[12] The Diccionario de Autoridades called it the third day of the week, named after the planet Mars, and quoted Mariana and Quevedo on Tuesday as an unlucky day.^[13] In 1899 the Academy recorded the proverb en martes, ni te cases ni te embarques, “on a Tuesday neither marry nor set sail”.^[14][15] In 2001 the Academy's dictionary called it the second day of the week and the third of the liturgical week; the DLE now calls it simply the second day.^[16][4]

The belief in an unlucky Tuesday was shared by the Sephardim of the Balkans, whose Judeo-Spanish proverbs warn against marrying or starting anything on that day.^[17] The word passed into Tagalog Martes and into other languages of the Philippines.^[1]

Timeline

• 1219 – the first record, in the Anales toledanos.^[10][2]
• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes sets water turns for Tuesday and Wednesday.^[11]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario links the day with the planet Mars.^[18]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija glosses it dies martis, feria tertia.^[12]
• 1541 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico City, for the days on which tributes were sold.^[19]
• 1817 – the Academy's dictionary records the phrase dar con la del martes.^[20]
• 1899 – the Academy gives the etymology Martis dies and the proverb on Tuesday as an unlucky day.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. Tuesday, the second day of the week, after lunes and before miércoles: Nos vemos el martes en la oficina.^[4][1]
2. martes de carnaval: Shrove Tuesday, the last day of carnival, before Ash Wednesday.^[21]

Related words

• Marte
• marzo
• marcial
• Latin Mārs

Usage notes

The plural is the same as the singular: los martes.^[1] In the 19th century dar con la del martes meant “to taunt someone with a defect”; in the 17th century it meant “to deceive”, and today the DLE defines it as “to do someone physical or moral harm”.^[20][2][4] Moliner notes that Tuesday counts as unluckier still when it falls on the 13th.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 864
3. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. marte
4. ^ 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. martes
5. ^ a b Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 447
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 4180
8. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 712
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. martes
11. ^ 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. martes
12. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 377
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 505
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 639
15. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. martes
16. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. martes
17. ^ Nehama, Joseph (1977), Dictionnaire du judéo-espagnol, Madrid: CSIC, p. s.v. martes
18. ^ 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. martes
19. ^ 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. martes
20. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 558
21. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. martes