Weekdays

[solito.livejournal.com]

I think all of you know the names of weekdays in Russian. They are:

1. Понедельник Monday
2. Вторник Tuesday
3. Среда Wednesday
4. Четверг Thursday
5. Пятница Friday
6. Суббота Saturday
7. Воскресенье Sunday

Please note that Monday is the first day of the week.

What is the etymology of these names? For some of them it is really simple:
Вторник is the second (второй) day, четверг - fourth (четвертый), пятница - fifth (пятый).
Среда is "in the middle" (посреди).

The rest is slightly more complicated:
Суббота - comes from the Greek word σαββατον, and there it came from the Hebrew word "Sabbath" (or Shabbat, as it is called in Hebrew).
Воскресенье - comes from "день воскресения Христа" (day of Christ resurrection) (Note the spelling difference - "воскресенье" is Sunday, "воскресение" - resurrection!).

And the last one (which is however the first) is the most unobvious. Before we begin let's recollect that in the Church Slavonic language the word "неделя" meant "Sunday" (contemporary Russian meaning is "week"). So the day after Sunday is "по (после) недели" (literally "after Sunday"), thus it is called "понедельник".

Comments

[draiboleath.livejournal.com]

Осталось лишь добавить, что слово "неделя" в значении "воскресенье" произошло от словосочетания "не дЬлати", то есть - отдыхать.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

I would love to remind that the working language of this community is English, so if you post or comment in Russian, you are expected to provide a comprehensive English translation as well. This is because this community is not for the native speakers who cannot write and/or speak their own language properly (which is the case with pishu_pravilno, but for thise who learn Russian as a foreign language. Many of them are still in a very early stage of their study.

[nymphatacita.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I never could figure out the reason for monday's name. :c)

[wordsofstealth.livejournal.com]

so then "TGIF" or "thank god its friday" in russian would be СБП or Спасибо Бог Пятнитца.!!!

да, да, я снаию я свежий !!!

~~абрам

[dimon37.livejournal.com]

I think a better way of saying this would be: Слава богу - уже пятница.

[apollotiger.livejournal.com]

What about СБЧЭП? Спаси Бог Что Это Пятнитца?

[dimon37.livejournal.com]

are you trying to find a literal translation or want to pick equivalent expression? I don't think you would say Спаси Бог other then during a prayer. Equivalent to Thank god is Слава богу.

[nemica.livejournal.com]

You know, modern Russians're not too religious so they don't use "god" often. Usually we use only "слава богу" as figure of speech.

[wordsofstealth.livejournal.com]

this is a fig of speech...

[nemica.livejournal.com]

Yeah, right. "Bananas get you everywhere" (c)T.Pratchett :)

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, most languages do not nicely translate into each other. You cannot just translate an English phrase word by word and have a Russian phrase. You have to know how Russian grammar and "language logic" works. For instance, "свежий" does mean "fresh," but only in the meaning "not rotten" :))))) In this case, it's better to say "я новичок", i.e. "I'm a novice," "I'm new here."

Thank God it's Friday is "Слава Богу, уже пятница" (literally, "Glory to the God, [it's] already Friday," but I tell you you cannot just translate everything literally :)))

[wordsofstealth.livejournal.com]

because of my ignorance i thought it would be clever to say that, nevertheless i was expecting a correction and perhaps a laugh.

Thank you for the correction

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Well, the only way to learn is to try, so let's consider it a nice try :) Feel free to ask anything you may want to know, and keep on learning :)

[lifetraveller.livejournal.com]

I just wanted to say that "спасибо" came from "god, save" - "спаси, бог", wich means something like "убереги", "помоги"
I dont know if i have a right to put it as a valuable post in this community

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

It's been a while - say, three or four hundred years - since Russians would thank somebody by saying "may God save you." Yes, "спасибо" derives from "спаси Бог" -- no more than "здравствуйте" derives from "be healthy" -- but those old literal meanings are long lost now.

[alexander-p.livejournal.com]

And one more little addition.

You may have noticed that Wednesday, i.e. среда, is not the middle day of the week, if Monday is the first. And you also may have noticed that the names of two days has an important religious meaning (while the other ones are actually serial numbers).

You know that in the Old Testament times the seventh day of theur week was the Sabbath Day. And what day can only be the first in the times of the New Testament? Surely, it is Sunday, the Day of Christ's Resurrection.

Thus, initially (now this meaning is kept only in the Church), the first day of our week was Sunday from which all the other days was reckoned: понеденельник is the first day after Sunday, вторник is the second, and so on.

And in this case, as you see, Wednesday is really in the middle.
q.e.d. :-)

[-alex-dee-.livejournal.com]

> (Note the spelling difference - "воскресенье" is Sunday, "воскресение" - resurrection!).
.... km,.... resurrection - воскреШение :rolleyes:.....

[oryx_and_crake]

::resurrection - воскреШение

Not really.

[-alex-dee-.livejournal.com]

уверен ?? are you sure ?? =))

воскресший/ resurrection man

i always say "воскрешение христа", not "воскресение христа"....

PS: btw, here is interesting links ;-))

http://www.lingvoforum.net/viewtopic.php?printertopic=1&t=52&start=15&postdays=0&postorder=asc&vote=viewresult&sid=27111673601a04de71afa06c7d7fc1bf

http://schools.keldysh.ru/sch1952/Pages/Genz/weeks.htm

http://www.pagan.ru/w/woskresenie8.php?p

http://www.kubhost.com/~kubkz/viewtopic.php?topic=199&forum=5&post=7550&uid=45&term=

[oryx_and_crake]

::i always say "воскрешение христа", not "воскресение христа"....

Then what you say is incorrect, because воскрешение means that someone else has made Christ resurrect (which is evidently not true), but воскресение is something that Christ did on his own.

Examples:
Воскрешение Лазаря Христом = Христос воскресил Лазаря
Воскресение Христово = Христос воскрес

::resurrection man
This does not make sense. You can say "renaissance man" - человек эпохи Возрождения, but "resurrection man" does not mean anything at all.

[-alex-dee-.livejournal.com]

лан, проехали эту тему.
но все равно я говорю "воскрешение христа" и "воскрешение христово"...

[oryx_and_crake]

Up to you.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

try to say this in the church :)

Just look in a plain old dictionary.
Resurrection is both воскрешение and воскресение. Russian воскрешение and воскресение have different meanings. Воскрешение is when somebody gets resurrected. Воскресение is the only one - because there was only One who resurrected "by himself." There is a difference, you just don't know that.

So, Sunday is воскресенье, while воскресение is Resurrection. Воскрешение is resurrection as well, but in Russian has another meaning which isn't equal to воскресение.

BTW, I have to remind that you are expected to provide English translation if you decide to comment in Russian here.

[-alex-dee-.livejournal.com]

>BTW, I have to remind that you are expected to provide English translation if you decide to comment in Russian here.
sorry, i don't know english very well... i can't translate some phrases to english (*меня ведь за это не убьют ??*)

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Well, this community is for those who learn Russian as a foreign language, and for those native Russian speakers willing and ABLE to help in this. If you aren't able, then why bother? ;-)

[yuia.livejournal.com]

side note: in Ukranian воскресенье = недiля (pronounced nehdeelya)

and in regards to "воскрешение": it is the past passive participle of the noun воскресение, то-есть: "он воскрес" vs. "он был воскрешен" although you would hear "он воскрес" more commonly in speech.