Monday, August 27, 2012

Swedish weekdays

I'm sure this information is available all over the internet but I thought I'd make a post about it anyways. The names of the Swedish weekdays and what they are derived from.
To begin with I should perhaps mention that the Swedish word for 'day' is 'dag'. While we're at it the Swedish word for 'night' is 'natt'. Also the Swedish word for a 24-hour period (usually starting at midnight) is 'dygn'.
On to the weekdays (this is what I learnt when I grew up, I only looked up the spelling of the names in English):
Weekday - Derived from - English description - Simple meaning
Måndag - Måne - 'Måne' means 'Moon' and he was the personification of the Moon in Norse mythology (in English the Norse god is called 'Máni') - Moon's Day
Tisdag - Tyr - 'Tyr' was one of the Norse gods (in English his name is spelt 'Týr') - Týr's Day
Onsdag - Oden - 'Oden' was one of the Norse gods (in English his name is spelt 'Odin') - Odin's Day
Torsdag - Tor - 'Tor' was one of the Norse gods (in English his name is spelt 'Thor') - Thor's Day
Fredag - Freja - 'Freja' was one of the Norse goddesses (in English her name is spelt 'Freyja') - Freyja's Day
Lördag - Löga - 'Löga' is an old word that's not used anymore, but it meant something along the lines of 'to wash oneself' - The Day you wash yourself
Söndag - Sol - 'Sol' means 'Sun' and she was the personification of the Sun in Norse mythology (in English her name is spelt 'Sól') - Sun's Day
So basically we have six days named after Norse gods/goddesses and one day we had to name so we didn't forget to wash ourselves at least once a week.

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