4 ms·

Beware the Lides of March

32 points by samclemens 3y ago

lupire 3y ago
[flagged]
dhosek 3y ago
We tend to forget about the classical origins of so much calendrical terminology, although some languages do better than others. The days of the week come from the seven major heavenly bodies known in the classical era. In English, in a bit of Roman syncretism, the Roman Gods associated with some of the planets were largely replaced with their Germanic equivalents (except, mysteriously Saturday—from Saturn), but the Spanish names (modulo the weekend) retain their Roman origins: Martes (Tuesday) = Mars, Miercoles (Wednesday) = Mercury, Jueves (Thursday) = Jupiter (the cognate is more obvious when you consider the inflected forms of Jupiter have the root iov- which is evident in the phrase, “by Jove”), Viernes (Friday) = Venus. So Tuesdays in March are a bit of double-dipping for the god of war. As a pacifist, I cannot recommend celebrating these in a martial manner.
- gumby 3y ago
  > Jueves (Thursday) = Jupiter Though in English it's Thor, a different god of thunder.
- stevoski 3y ago
  > The Spanish names retain their Roman origins. As do the French, Italian, and Catalan names. But Portuguese, no. For Monday to Friday they use something like “second”, “third”, “fourth”, “fifth”, “sixth”. And that, perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not, is similar to the days of the week in Arabic.
  - stevoski 3y ago
    Adding to my own comment, because I was curious and had to look it up: In Galician (which is very similar to Portuguese), the days of the week use the Roman-derived names, unlike Portuguese.
    - dhosek 3y ago
      According to Wikipedia, there are both the Roman-derived names and numbered days.
- toyg 3y ago
  > modulo the weekend In more observant Christian countries, the weekend was taken over by religion. In Italian/French/Spanish, Sunday is domenica/domingo/dimanche, from Latin "domine", "of the Lord"; and sabato/sabado/samedi is from "shabbat". Btw, I don't know why you skipped "moon day", which is a direct translation of the Latin lunae dies (hence lunedì/lunes/lundì). That survived even better than the others.
nescioquid 3y ago
How is the name pronounced? >> Lide...is recorded almost exclusively in sources from the southwest of England. In the late 13th century... The Great Vowel Shift happened later than this, so perhaps it was something like LEED-AH? >> The etymology of ‘Lide’ goes back to the Old English name Hlyda Looking up a pronounciation for Hlyda, I find: hlȳda, m.n: March. (HLUE-dah / ˈhlyː-da) Or was it more like LOOD-AH?
- linehedonist 3y ago
  OED has /lʌɪd/, like lied (to my ears) https://www.oed.com/dictionary/lide_n https://www.oed.com/dictionary/lide_n

32 points by samclemens 3y ago

[flagged]

We tend to forget about the classical origins of so much calendrical terminology, although some languages do better than others. The days of the week come from the seven major heavenly bodies known in the classical era. In English, in a bit of Roman syncretism, the Roman Gods associated with some of the planets were largely replaced with their Germanic equivalents (except, mysteriously Saturday—from Saturn), but the Spanish names (modulo the weekend) retain their Roman origins: Martes (Tuesday) = Mars, Miercoles (Wednesday) = Mercury, Jueves (Thursday) = Jupiter (the cognate is more obvious when you consider the inflected forms of Jupiter have the root iov- which is evident in the phrase, “by Jove”), Viernes (Friday) = Venus. So Tuesdays in March are a bit of double-dipping for the god of war. As a pacifist, I cannot recommend celebrating these in a martial manner.

gumby 3y ago
> Jueves (Thursday) = Jupiter Though in English it's Thor, a different god of thunder.
stevoski 3y ago
> The Spanish names retain their Roman origins. As do the French, Italian, and Catalan names. But Portuguese, no. For Monday to Friday they use something like “second”, “third”, “fourth”, “fifth”, “sixth”. And that, perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not, is similar to the days of the week in Arabic.
- stevoski 3y ago
  Adding to my own comment, because I was curious and had to look it up: In Galician (which is very similar to Portuguese), the days of the week use the Roman-derived names, unlike Portuguese.
  - dhosek 3y ago
    According to Wikipedia, there are both the Roman-derived names and numbered days.
toyg 3y ago
> modulo the weekend In more observant Christian countries, the weekend was taken over by religion. In Italian/French/Spanish, Sunday is domenica/domingo/dimanche, from Latin "domine", "of the Lord"; and sabato/sabado/samedi is from "shabbat". Btw, I don't know why you skipped "moon day", which is a direct translation of the Latin lunae dies (hence lunedì/lunes/lundì). That survived even better than the others.

nescioquid 3y ago

How is the name pronounced? >> Lide...is recorded almost exclusively in sources from the southwest of England. In the late 13th century... The Great Vowel Shift happened later than this, so perhaps it was something like LEED-AH? >> The etymology of ‘Lide’ goes back to the Old English name Hlyda Looking up a pronounciation for Hlyda, I find: hlȳda, m.n: March. (HLUE-dah / ˈhlyː-da) Or was it more like LOOD-AH?

linehedonist 3y ago
OED has /lʌɪd/, like lied (to my ears) https://www.oed.com/dictionary/lide_n https://www.oed.com/dictionary/lide_n