In dozens of languages throughout the world, the day Thursday is named in honor of a god associated with thunder and lightning. The particular god may not be the same across cultures, but the namesake is consistently a high-ranking deity that controls this specific weather phenomenon.
In ancient Greece, it was hemera Dios, the Day of Zeus. The god of the sky and thunder, Zeus was often depicted with a lightning bolt raised above his head. In Rome, people honored Jupiter (who was essentially their version of Zeus). In Latin, the day is called dies Jovis. The connection with Jupiter can still be found today in French, Portuguese, Italian, and Spanish. In many modern Indian languages, Thursday (Guruvāra) honors Brihaspati, who was a god associated with the planet Jupiter.
When it comes to old Germanic dialects , Thursday was Thor’s Day. Like Zeus and Jupiter, Thor was a powerful leader who controlled the weather. Thor was still the god being referenced when the English word for Thursday emerged , but some translations suggest that the Old English word thunresdæg actually meant Thunder’s Day.
This similarity of the root of the name for Thursday among different cultures and languages is an example of a loan translation in which a word (or the root of a word) is adopted by another language as its own. As the concept of the seven-day week spread around the world, many cultures stuck with the theme for each day and just amended the name to match their particular god who fit the role.
What Did You Learn?
1. What do the gods Zeus and Jupiter have in common?
2. What term refers to the use of a word across different languages?
