Wednesday

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A day situated between Tuesday and Thursday, commonly seen as the middle of the work week across various cultures, and typically linked to the Norse god Woden in mythology
2. This day follows Tuesday and precedes Thursday, representing the midpoint in the weekly work cycle for many societies, while being associated with the astrological representation of Mercury
3. The fourth day in a seven-day week, coming after Tuesday and before Thursday, often recognized as the middle of the standard working week

Etymology: The name of the day after Tuesday is a translation rather than an invention. Romans dedicated this day to Mercury, and when Germanic peoples encountered the Roman week, they swapped in their own deity of comparable character. The Old English name ran through forms like "Wodnesdæg," meaning "Woden's day," after Woden, the chief god whom Germanic speakers associated with Mercury, and whose Norse counterpart was Odin. The same pattern shows up across the Germanic languages. Dutch "woensdag," German "Wodenstag" and "Wotanstag," and Swedish "onsdag" all preserve Woden or Odin in the name. Icelandic "óðinsdagur" makes the god's identity especially clear. Scholars call this kind of substitution an interpretatio germanica, a practice that let Germanic peoples recognise Roman gods by matching them to their own. The word's modern English form, with its unusual pronunciation "WENZ-day," shows the same wear that has reshaped many English names. Over centuries of speech, the "d" in "Woden" weakened and the syllables compressed until the name was no longer obviously about the god at all.