Re: [TIED] Re: Etymological Riddles (Solution: Part Two)

From: Marc Verhaegen
Message: 2842
Date: 2000-07-11

Piotr & others, how do you explain the Dutch/German dinsdag/Dienstag? Has it anything to do with Tuesday?
 
Marc

The phonetic similarity of Tuesday [t(j)u:zdeI] and dUZdI proves that IE homeland should be sought in a place where it always rains on Tuesday ;)

Håkan is of course right about the etymology of Tuesday, which is OE Tiwes dæg, the day of Tiw (Tiu = Scandinavian Tyr, the son of Woden/Odin, to whom Wednesday was dedicated). Although demoted to the position of a lesser god in Germanic mythology, Tiw is etymologically a descendant of the IE Sky God *die:us (> Zeus, Dyaus, Iuppiter, etc.). The god’s name was also a common noun meaning ‘daylight, clear sky, day’. (BTW the English word day is completely unrelated.)