The name Friday comes from the Old English frigedæg, meaning the day of Frige the Anglo-Saxon form of Frigg, a West Germanic translation of Latin dies Veneris, "day (of the planet) Venus." However, in most Germanic languages the day is named after Freyja—such as Frīatag in Old High German, Freitag in Modern German, Freyjudagr in Old Norse, Vrijdag in Dutch, Fredag in Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish—but Freyja and Frigg are frequently identified with each other.
The word for Friday in most Romance languages is derived from Latin dies Veneris, "day (of the planet) Venus." Russian uses an ordinal number for this day of the week-- piatnítsa, meaning "fifth." Similarly, the Portuguese is sexta-feira.
According to the original September 17th, 1887 poem, Friday's child is full of woe and I was talking to one of these, a girl, yesterday but not on the topic of Friday.
We were discussing birth order and age gaps between siblings. She herself is five years younger than her older brother and therefore she's the mollycoddled, slightly spoiled, easygoing and cheerful girl you'd expect, whose brother "looks out for her".
She made a very interesting comment, in Russian, that girls of this type are "infantil'ni" and it wasn't hard to see what she was saying. Interesting because someone made a comment the other day that feminism had made western women more "infantil'ni" and petulant about their gender.
I can't comment except to say that a girl today over in this part of the world is growing up as the western children of the 60s did - spoiled, parents determined to give them everything they themselves never had, especially during the war years, never hearing the word "no" from parents or easily able to circumvent that word and enjoying personal freedom earleir than ever before.
When that is coupled with the wide western world of expensive glitz and a cushy, easy life, as the young here see it, then the incentive to grow up is less. I have no axe to grind here and when I compare the university girls of 1996 with those of today, there really does seem a great difference, perhaps a less careworn and anxious attitude, perhaps a less emotionally mature mind.
A little "Friday-conundrum".
ReplyDeleteHow would I know that April 8th, 1938 was a Friday?
Well, it is the birthday of Kofi Annan. And "Kofi" in Ghana means "Friday". :)
Thanks, Sean - that was important in the scheme of things.
ReplyDeleteI am afraid I shall miss Saturday's child you has to work hard for a living - that is me! And too true!
ReplyDeleteI am off off to Bristol soon and will check it out when I return.
Arthur Rackham's Freya- A poerful image, provocative, yet somehow innocent, yet also linking the image of Freya to Eve.
ReplyDeleteEllee - have a nice one.
ReplyDeleteCrushed - clever boy.
Dydd Gwener in Welsh, the names of the days in Celtic tongues coming from Latin. Then there's Friday Night, which is of course Nos Wener. And yes, I have been known to bore people shitless in pubs. It's an art.
ReplyDeleteRackham's a most beautiful artist - I remember his "not feeling dancy at all", for example.
ReplyDeleteDon't criticise women; listen to them. They'll tell you their faults themselves, if you'll only listen, forgivingly. No need to tear her down off her pedestal if you haven't hoisted her onto one in the first place, which she didn't ask for.
Ordo - your type of boring to death is an interesting way to go.
ReplyDeleteSackerson - there is such a thing as TOO gallant, young man!
Sorry - false memory; it's "feeling very undancey" - see:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.allposters.com/-sp/Feeling-Very-Undancey-Posters_i1249453_.htm
Not gallant, alas; but listen.
Keep on topic here. No ranting about the youth of today or of the sixties.
ReplyDeleteHave to disagree about this:
growing up as the western children of the 60s did - spoiled, parents determined to give them everything they themselves never had, especially during the war years, never hearing the word "no" from parents or easily able to circumvent that word and enjoying personal freedom earlier than ever before.
In my sphere, and we had children in the early and mid sixties, we gave them a bit more freedom than our parents did but it was not in an unconstrained way at all. We seemed to strive to better parents than ours had been to us, being very involved in their lives although we still did not have tons of money to throw away on them. I think you might be talking about quite a bit later.
Sorry, JMB - had to slip that one in edgeways.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I don't think feminism has made women more "infantil'ni" [can't remember the spelling now - sorry] though. In the UK I think univ students are more serious than we were, sadly.
ReplyDeleteum, the poem actually goes wednesday's child is full of woe and friday;s child is loving and giving.
ReplyDeleteThere are different versions of it. this was just one of them.
ReplyDelete