Other forms: sabbaths
The Sabbath is the weekly day set aside for rest and worship. Keep the Sabbath, on the Sabbath, Sabbath observance.
In Judaism it runs from Friday sunset to Saturday nightfall and the rules about what counts as work are detailed and much studied. Most Christian traditions moved the observance to Sunday. Sabbath laws restricting Sunday trading survived in Britain until 1994 and still limit large shops' hours. Note sabbatical, which is a period of leave named from the same rest.
1nounsabbathThe weekly day set aside for rest and worship.
“The Sabbath runs about twenty-five hours.”
sabbath is a day of rest.
Hebrew
שַׁבָּת — Sabbath
Ancient Greek
σάββατον — Sabbath
Latin
sabbatum
Old French
sabbat
Old English
sabat
Middle English
sabat
English
Sabbath
English, today
sabbath
Sabbath comes from Middle English sabat, sabbat, sabath, from Old English sabat and Old French sabbat, both from Latin sabbatum, from Ancient Greek σάββατον (“Sabbath”), from Hebrew שַׁבָּת (“Sabbath”), with the spelling ending in -th, probably influenced by the traditional transliteration of the Hebrew as shabbāth, being attested since the 14th century and widespread since the 16th. a doublet of Shabbat. Possibly from the Sumerian sa-bat ("mid-rest").
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA