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Below taken from The American Heritage
Dictionary
Wednes·day
(wµnz“d¶,
-d³”) n.
Abbr. W.,
Wed. The fourth day of the week. [Middle English, from
Old English W½dnesdæg, Woden's day. See
wet-1
below.]
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WORD HISTORY:
We say the names of the days of the week constantly, but for most of
us they are nonsense syllables. The seven-day system we use is based
on the ancient astrological notion that the seven celestial bodies
(the sun, the moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn)
revolving around stationary Earth influence what happens on it and
that each of these celestial bodies controls the first hour of the
day named after it. This system was brought into Hellenistic Egypt
from Mesopotamia, where astrology had been practiced for millenniums
and where seven had always been a propitious number. In
A.D. 321 the Emperor
Constantine the Great grafted this astrological system onto the
Roman calendar, made the first day of this new week a day of rest
and worship for all, and imposed the following sequence and names to
the days of the week: Di¶s S½lis,
“Sun's Day”; Di¶s
L¿nae,
“Moon's Day”; Di¶s
Martis, “Mars's Day”; Di¶s
Mercuriº,
“Mercury's Day”; Di¶s
Iovis, “Jove's Day” or “Jupiter's Day”; Di¶s
Veneris, “Venus's Day”; and Di¶s
Saturnº,
“Saturn's Day.” This new Roman system was adopted with modifications
throughout most of western Europe: in the Germanic languages, such
as Old English, the names of four of the Roman gods were converted
into those of the corresponding Germanic gods. Therefore in Old
English we have the following names (with their Modern English
developments): Sunnandæg,
Sunday; M½nandæg,
Monday; Tºwesdæg, Tuesday (the god Tiu, like Mars, was a
god of war); W½dnesdæg,
Wednesday (the god Woden, like Mercury, was quick and eloquent);
Thunresdæg, Thursday (the god Thunor in Old English
or Thor in Old Norse, like Jupiter, was lord of the sky; Old Norse
Th½rsdagr
influenced the English form); Frºgedæg,
Friday (the goddess Frigg, like Venus, was the goddess of love); and
Saeternesdæg,
Saturday.
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wet-1.
Important derivatives are: Wednesday, fan1,
atmosphere.
wet-1.
To blow, inspire, spiritually arouse. Related to
w¶-. 1.
Lengthened-grade form *w½t-.
a. WODEN,
from Old English W½den,
Woden; b. WEDNESDAY,
from Old English W½dnesdæg,
“Woden's day”; c. ODIN,
from Old Norse Ødhinn,
Odin; d. WOTAN, from Old High German Wuotan.
a, b, c, and
d all from Germanic suffixed form *w½d-eno-,
*w½d-ono-,
“raging,” “mad,” “inspired,” hence “spirit,” name of the chief
Teutonic god *W½d-enaz;
e. WOOD2,
from Old English w½d,
mad, insane, from Germanic *w½daz. 2. Lengthened variant form *w³t-.
VATIC, from Latin v³t¶s,
prophet, poet. 3.
Variant form *wat-. WEDELN,
from Old High German wedil, fan, from Germanic suffixed form
*wath-ila-. 4.
Suffixed variant form *wat-no-.
FAN1,
VAN3,
from Latin vannus, a winnowing fan.
5. Oldest basic form *…wet-
becoming *awet- in suffixed form *awet-mo-.
ATMOSPHERE, from Greek atmos
(< *aetmos), breath, vapor. [Pokorny
ø³t-
1113.]
Worship Schedules
|
Friday |
7:00pm. |
| Saturday
|
5:00pm. |
| Wednesday
|
6:30pm. |
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