In our examination of the names of the days in English and French (and incidentally, in Babylonian and Latin), we have reached the middle of the week (Mittwoch in German) with Wednesday.

While most people pronounce Wednesday as two syllables – “wenzday” – a few, perhaps considered “old school” by the majority, pronounce it with three: “wed’nsday”, which, as we shall see, is slightly nearer the original from which it derives. With 9 letters, it is also the longest of the English day names.

Here is a reminder of these names in the 5 languages we are considering:

The significance of Nabû to the Babylonians is succinctly described in its Encyclopædia Britannica entry as follows:

Nabu, biblical Nebo, major god in the Assyro-Babylonian pantheon. He was patron of the art of writing and a god of vegetation. Nabu’s symbols were the clay tablet and the stylus, the instruments held to be proper to him who inscribed the fates assigned to men by the gods.

The Germanic tribes, among whom were the invaders of Britain who would become known to history as the Anglo-Saxons, named this day after the god Woden.

Woden was also known as Odin, a god with many and somewhat confusing characteristics. He seems to have shared with Tiw the quality of being a warlike god whose protection could be sought in battle. In Norse mythology, Odin presided over Valhalla where he was joined by warriors fallen in battle. His favourite weapon was the spear, with which he was often depicted, and he had only one eye, having given the other in exchange for wisdom. For more details, see the Wikipedia article on Odin.

In the Anglo-Saxon language, the genitive (possessive case) of Woden is Wodnes, giving Wodnesdæg for the name of his day and, ultimately, our modern Wednesday.

The Romans dedicated this day of the week to Mercury or Mercurius in Latin. This god’s Greek equivalent was Hermes, the two of them having many traits in common. Mercury was the god of commerce and communication and as such was the messenger of the gods and the patron of merchants and messengers. He was also known to be a trickster and was the patron of thieves. For more details, see the Wikipedia article Mercury (mythology).

The genitive of Mercurius is Mercurii and so his day was called by the Romans Dies Mercurii or Mercurii dies. As Vulgar Latin evolved into modern Romance languages and their dialects, Mercurii was often mutated into Mercuris by analogy with Martis (genitive of Mars) and Veneris (genitive of Venus). Sometimes the name alone became the day name and thus Mercuris became the Spanish miércoles. The French kept to Mercuris dies which eventually mutated into the modern mercredi.