Sunday is the only day of the week name that does not end in “di”. Why and what should we have called it?
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday… It is hard not to notice that all days of the week contain the syllable “di”. It is also impossible not to pay attention to the fact that it is systematically found at the end of the name, with one exception: Sunday, which does not have the same ending, but begins with “di”. Why is the last day of the week different from the others?
First of all, you need to know the origin of the names of the days of the week in French. The latter have Latin roots, which explains the presence of “di”, which means “day” in Latin. At the time of the Romans, the days of the week were named in honor of the seven wandering stars, which were also divinities in their mythology, namely Jupiter, the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Saturn, the Sun and Venus. For example, “Lunis dies” gave “Monday” and means “day of the Moon”.
So, Monday refers to the Moon, Tuesday to Mars, Wednesday to Mercury, Thursday to Jupiter, Friday to Venus and Saturday to Saturn. But then, why is Sunday not called “soldi”, to honor the Sun? In fact, before, the name of this day echoed the star around which the Earth revolves. Moreover, many languages in which the names of days have Latin origins refer to it. For example, in English, we say “sunday”, composed of the words “sun” and “day” which mean “sun” and “day”.
This rule was changed a long time ago in some languages, notably in French. The first Christians wanted to replace the “day of the Sun” with the “day of the Lord”, which is called “dies dominica”. And that is what eventually gave “sunday”!