Friday

How to spell friday

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce friday

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does friday mean?

1. nounThe day of the week between Thursday and Saturday, traditionally the last working day for many people.

Friday in a sentence

• The report is due by the end of the day on friday.

• The office closes early every friday in summer.

Where does friday come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word comes from Old English frigedæg, which literally meant 'the day of Frigg', Frigg being the Germanic goddess of love and marriage and the wife of Odin. The name was modelled on the Latin dies Veneris, 'day of Venus', because the Romans dedicated this day to their goddess of love, and the Germanic peoples substituted their own equivalent goddess when they translated the planetary week. The first element preserves the goddess's name almost intact, which is why the spelling keeps the 'i' that an unstressed pronunciation can blur. Frigg also lends her name to several other Germanic languages' words for this day, such as the Dutch vrijdag and German Freitag. The word has been used continuously in English since the earliest written records, long before the Norman Conquest.

How the word is built

• Fri- (from Frigg, the Norse goddess)
• -day (day, from Old English dæg)