Saturdays

How to spell saturdays

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce saturdays

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does saturdays mean?

1. nounMore than one Saturday, the seventh day of the week, often used to describe a recurring weekly occasion.

Saturdays in a sentence

• The gym is busiest on saturdays when everyone catches up on exercise.

• She spends her saturdays visiting the farmers market downtown.

Where does saturdays come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word goes back to the Old English Sæternesdæg, which meant literally 'the day of Saturn'. That name was a direct translation of the Latin Saturni dies, the term Roman astrologers used for the day governed by the planet Saturn, itself named after Saturnus, the Roman god of agriculture and harvest. While most English day-names honour Norse or Germanic gods (Woden gave us Wednesday, Thor gave us Thursday), Saturday is unusual in keeping its Roman deity rather than swapping in a Norse equivalent. Over the centuries the spelling smoothed from Sæternesdæg down to the modern Saturday, and the plural simply adds an -s. The tricky middle is the unstressed 'ur', a faint schwa that tempts writers toward 'saterday', even though the spelling preserves the Saturn that started it all.

How the word is built

• Satur- (from Latin Saturnus, the god Saturn)
• -day (Old English dæg)
• -s (plural)