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viernes

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word viernes

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1219 Fuero de Guadalajara More words from the 13th century
Inherited from
Latin dies Veneris
Ultimate origin
Latin Venus

Pronunciation

  • /ˈbjeɾnes/, [ˈbjeɾ.nes][1]

Forms

viernes m (plural viernes)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin diēs Veneris (“day of Venus”), shortened to its second word, Veneris, the genitive of the goddess's name.[2][3][4][1] The Roman name translates the Greek “day of Aphrodite”.[5] The shortened form survives in Romanian vineri, Dalmatian vindre, Friulian vinars and Spanish; Catalan divendres and Occitan divendres keep both words, and French vendredi and Italian venerdì put them in the other order.[2][6] In the northwest the word is Asturian vienres and Galician venres.[7][1] Corominas also derives Basque barikoa “Friday”, with the loss of /n/ between vowels, from the same genitive.[2]

Lanchetas explains the form by syncope ⟨venris⟩, metathesis ⟨vernis⟩ and the diphthong /je/ of stressed /e/.[8] Gómez de Silva records an older vienres.[5] The final /s/ of lunes and miércoles was added on the model of martes, jueves and this word.[9]

The goddess's name goes back to Proto-Italic *wenos-, a neuter noun, from Proto-Indo-European *wénh₁-os (“desire, loveliness”).[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the first record to the Fuero de Guadalajara of 1219 and to Berceo.[2] Berceo's Vida de San Millán (c. 1230, in an 18th-century copy) uses it of the Crucifixion: Viernes era el día qe esto conteció “It was Friday, the day this happened”.[11][8]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's Lapidario still links the day to the planet: a stone works en dia de uiernes seyendo uenus bien fortunada “on a Friday, when Venus is well placed”.[12] Nebrija gave the Latin dies ueneris and the Church's name feria sexta.[13]

The Diccionario de Autoridades explained the name by the planet Venus, gave the sense “a day when meat is forbidden”, cara de viernes “a gaunt, sad face” from Quevedo, and la semana que no tenga viernes “never”.[14] The Academy recorded viernes santo “Good Friday” and the old viernes de indulgencias and viernes de la cruz in 1817,[15] and in 1884 comer de viernes “to keep the fast” and haber aprendido en viernes “to keep repeating something”.[16] The phrase about learning on a Friday is still used in Andalusia.[17] In Mexico and Guatemala viernes is a humorous adjective for “old”.[18][19]

The Academy's 2001 edition called it the fifth day of the week and the sixth of the liturgical week;[20] the DLE now calls it the fifth day, a holy day in Islam.[4] It passed into Tagalog as Biyernes.[1]

Timeline

  • 1144 – the DEMel's earliest primary record, in a document of the Oña collection, before Corominas's first date.[21]
  • 1158–1202 – uernes in the Fuero de Madrid.[21]
  • 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes.[11]
  • 1219 – the Fuero de Guadalajara, Corominas's first record.[2][3]
  • c. 1230 – Berceo's Vida de San Millán, of the day of the Crucifixion.[11]
  • 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario ties the day to the planet Venus.[12]
  • c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin dies ueneris and feria sexta.[13]
  • 1539 – the first record from the Americas, Viernes Santo in New Granada.[22]
  • 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records cara de viernes.[14]
  • 1817 – the Academy records viernes santo.[15]
  • 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology, “day sacred to Venus”.[16]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Friday, the day after Thursday, a holy day in Islam: El viernes vamos al cine.[4][1]
  2. Viernes Santo: Good Friday.[1][23]

Adjective

  1. (Mexico, Guatemala, humorous) Old.[18][19]

Word family

  • reviernes
  • venéreo
  • venera
  • Latin Venus
  • Catalan divendres

Usage notes

The plural is also viernes: los viernes.[1] Comer de viernes “to eat as on a fast day” is now rare.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. 5, 808
  3. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. viernes
  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. viernes
  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. s.v. viernes
  6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
  7. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. vienres
  8. ^ a b Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 792
  9. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. viernes
  10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  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. viernes
  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. viernes
  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. viernes
  14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 484
  15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 892
  16. ^ 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. 1089
  17. ^ Alcalá Venceslada, Antonio (1951), Vocabulario andaluz, Madrid: Real Academia Española, p. 648
  18. ^ 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. viernes
  19. ^ a b Santamaría, Francisco J. (1959), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Porrúa, p. 1114
  20. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. viernes
  21. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock
  22. ^ 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. viernes
  23. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. viernes

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Viernes.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/viernes. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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