miércoles

Forms

miércoles m (plural miércoles)^[1] Old Spanish also wrote miercores and mércoles;^[1] Ribagorza has mierques.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin diēs Mercuriī (“day of Mercury”), shortened to the genitive alone, “(the day) of Mercury”.^[4][1][5] The DLE starts from Vulgar Latin (diēs) Mercŭris, an altered form of the classical genitive.^[6] The Latin phrase is a calque of Ancient Greek ἡμέρα Ἑρμοῦ (hēméra Hermoû, “day of Hermes”), from the custom of naming the days of the week after the seven planets.^[1][5]

According to Bénaben, the genitive would have given *miércore, and then *miércole by dissimilation of the second /r/;^[1] Wiktionary likewise describes a dissimilation of /r/ – /r/ to /r/ – /l/.^[7][1] The final -s is analogical, taken from martes, jueves and viernes.^[7][8][4] The DCVB says the same of the Catalan word, beside forms whose -s is etymological.^[9]

The same Latin name gave Galician mércores, Italian mercoledì, Romanian miercuri and French mercredi; Catalan dimecres and Occitan dimècres keep the word for “day” in front.^[1][10] The DHLF notes that Spanish continues the Vulgar Latin genitive alone, without the word for “day”.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The BDELC dates the word to 1113.^[4] The DEMel finds miercoles in Burgos documents of 1157, and the CDH's earliest hit, in the Fuero of Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250), allows water to the gardens two days a week, el martes et el miercoles “on Tuesday and Wednesday”.^[2][11]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's Lapidario (1250–1279) recalls the old link with the planet: Mercury is the stone's planet and Wednesday its ruling day.^[12] Old texts and fueros fix markets and duties to it: a council of León of about 1250 restores el mercado publico que fazen al miercoles “the public market held on Wednesday”.^[11]

The Church counts it as the fourth day of the week, feria quarta, the civil calendar as the third;^[13] Terreros (1786–1793) called it the third working day.^[14][13] Moliner and the Academy record Miércoles de Ceniza “Ash Wednesday”, the first day of Lent, and its colloquial, now disused name miércoles corvillo.^[15][6][14]

As a euphemism for mierda, miércoles is also an interjection of annoyance, recorded by the DLE, and a noun recorded by DAMER in most of Latin America, from Guatemala to Uruguay.^[6][16][8]

Timeline

• 1113 – first record of the word, according to the BDELC.^[4]
• 1157 – miercoles in documents of Burgos.^[2]
• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero of Zorita de los Canes, the CDH's earliest hit.^[11]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario links Wednesday with the planet Mercury.^[12]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives the Latin equivalents mercurii dies and feria quarta.^[17]
• 1537 – first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[18]
• 1543 – miércoles de la ceniza in a document from Panama.^[18]
• 1786–1793 – Terreros records miércoles corvillo as the popular name of Ash Wednesday.^[14]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology “Mercurii dies, day consecrated to Mercury”.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. Wednesday: the third day of the week, between martes and jueves (the fourth in the liturgical week).^[6][13][1]
2. (Latin America, euphemistic) Excrement, as a polite word for mierda.^[16][13]

Interjection

1. (euphemistic) Expresses annoyance, anger or surprise; a polite form of ¡mierda!: ¡Miércoles, otra vez se fue la luz!^[6][20][1]

Related words

• Mercurio
• martes
• jueves
• Latin dies Mercurii
• French mercredi

Usage notes

The plural is the same as the singular: los miércoles.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. miércoles
3. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 4289
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. miércoles
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. 462
6. ^ a b c d e 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. miércoles
7. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. miércoles
8. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. miércoles
9. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. dimecres
10. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. mercredi
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. miércoles
12. ^ 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. miércoles
13. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. miércoles
14. ^ a b c Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 2, 583
15. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. miércoles
16. ^ 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. miércoles
17. ^ 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. miércoles
18. ^ 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. miércoles
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 659
20. ^ Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. miércoles