Origin and history of Tuesday

Tuesday(n.)

third day of the week, Middle English Tiues-dai, from Old English tiwesdæg, from Tiwes, genitive of Tiw "Tiu," from Proto-Germanic *Tiwaz, the original supreme deity of ancient Germanic mythology, specifically as Tiu, god of war.

The god-name is reconstructed to be from PIE *deiwos "god," from root *dyeu- "to shine," in derivatives "sky, heaven, god." The day-name is cognate with Old Frisian tiesdei, Old Norse tysdagr, Swedish tisdag, Old High German ziestag. The second element is dæg (see day).

It is a translation of Latin dies Martis (source of Italian martedi, French Mardi) "Day of Mars," from the Roman god of war, who was identified with Germanic Tiw (though etymologically Tiw is related to Zeus), itself a loan-translation of Greek Areos hēmera.

In cognate German Dienstag and Dutch Dinsdag, the first element would appear to be Germanic ding, þing "public assembly," but it more recently was thought to be from Thinxus, one of the names of the war-god in Latin inscriptions.

Entries linking to Tuesday

day(n.)

Old English dæg "period during which the sun is above the horizon," also "lifetime, definite time of existence," from Proto-Germanic *dages- "day" (source also of Old Saxon, Middle Dutch, Dutch dag, Old Frisian di, dei, Old High German tag, German Tag, Old Norse dagr, Gothic dags), according to Watkins, from PIE root *agh- "a day." He adds that the Germanic initial d- is "of obscure origin." But Boutkan says it is from PIE root *dhegh- "to burn" (see fever). Not considered to be related to Latin dies (which is from PIE root *dyeu- "to shine").

Meaning originally, in English, "the daylight hours;" it expanded to mean "the 24-hour period" in late Anglo-Saxon times. The day formerly began at sunset, hence Old English Wodnesniht was what we would call "Tuesday night." Names of the weekdays were not regularly capitalized in English until 17c.

From late 12c. as "a time period as distinguished from other time periods." From day to day was in late Old English; day-by-day "daily" is from late 14c.; all day "all the time" is from late 14c. Day off "day away from work" is attested from 1883; day-tripper first recorded 1897. The days in nowadays, etc. is a relic of the Old English and Middle English use of the adverbial genitive.

All in a day's work "something unusual taken as routine" is by 1820. The nostalgic those were the days is attested by 1907. That'll be the day, expressing mild doubt following some boast or claim, is by 1941. One of these days "at some day in the near future" is from late 15c. One of those days "a day of misfortune, day when nothing goes right" is by 1924.

The locals have no alibi with the exception that it must have been one of those "days" that comes to every ball club when every player strives to out do the other in an attempt to lose the game. ["Columbus 11, Ulysses 3," Ulysses (Neb.) Dispatch, Aug. 7, 1924]

Zeus

supreme god of the ancient Greeks and master of the others, 1706, from Greek, from PIE *dewos- "god" (source also of Latin deus "god," Old Persian daiva- "demon, evil god," Old Church Slavonic deivai, Sanskrit deva-), from root *dyeu- "to shine," in derivatives "sky, heaven, god." The god-sense is originally "shining," but "whether as originally sun-god or as lightener" is not now clear.