Etymology

Friday

Fri·day
F4R1I1D2A1Y4

Today it means: The sixth day of the week in many religious traditions, and the fifth day of the week in systems using the ISO 8601 norm; the Muslim Sabbath; it follows Thursday and precedes Saturday. Full definition →

Middle English Friday ← Old English frīġedæġ ← Proto-West Germanic *Frījā dag
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromdiēs Veneris
  2. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*Frījā dag
  3. Old English · inherited fromfrīġedæġ
  4. Middle English · inherited fromFriday
  5. English todayFriday

From Middle English Friday, from Old English frīġedæġ, a compound of Frīġ + dæġ (“day”), from Proto-West Germanic *Frījā dag, equivalent to Frigg + day, a calque of Latin diēs Veneris, via an association (interpretātiō germānica) of the goddess Frigg with the Roman goddess of love Venus. See also friend. Compare West Frisian freed, German Low German Freedag, Friedag, Dutch vrijdag, German Freitag, Danish fredag. Old Norse Frigg (genitive Friggjar), Old Saxon Fri, and Old English Frīġ are derived from Proto-Germanic *Frijjō. Frigg is cognate with Sanskrit प्रिया (priyā́, “wife”). The root also appears in Old Saxon fri (“beloved lady”); in Swedish fria, in Danish and Norwegian as fri (“to propose for marriage”); a related meaning exists in Icelandic as frjá (“to love”) and similarly in Dutch vrijen (“to make love (to have sex)”). Compare Japanese 金曜日.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.