Other forms: wednesdays
Wednesday is the middle day of the working week, and famously hard to spell. On Wednesday, Wednesday afternoon, every Wednesday.
The d is silent and that is the whole spelling problem: the name is Woden's day, after the Norse and Germanic god also called Odin, and the d belongs to Woden. Saying it as three syllables in your head fixes the spelling. Hump day is the American name for it.
1nounwednesdayThe day between Tuesday and Thursday.
“We finish school at lunchtime on Wednesday, so we have the afternoon free.”
wednesday is a day of the week.
Proto-Indo-European
*dʰegʷʰ-
Proto-West Germanic
*Wōdanas dag
Old English
*wēdnesdæġ — Wednesday
Middle English
Wednesday
English
Wednesday
English, today
wednesday
Built from
Wednesday comes from Middle English Wednesday, from unattested Old English wēdnesdæġ (“Wednesday”), synchronically an i-mutated form of attested wōdnesdæġ (itself from Proto-West Germanic Wōdanas dag, its reflex Middle English Wodnesdei falling into disuse), from Proto-West Germanic Wōdinas dag also attested in Old Frisian wednesdei and Middle Dutch wenesdach. In any case, a calque (interpretātiō germānica) of Latin diēs Mercuriī (“day of Mercury”) and Koine Ancient Greek ἡμέρα (“day”) Ἑρμοῦ (“of Hermes”), via an association of the god Odin (“Woden”) with Mercury and Hermes. See also Japanese 水曜日 (“Mercury's day”). 2 Cognate with Scots Wadensday (“Wednesday”), yol Wennesdei (“Wednesday”), West Frisian woansdei (“Wednesday”), Afrikaans Woensdag (“Wednesday”), gmw-cfr Jodesdaach (“Wednesday”), Dutch -, vls woensdag (“Wednesday”), nds-nl woensdag, woonsdag, wonsdag (“Wednesday”), German Wodenstag, Wotanstag (“Wednesday”), Low German Goonsdag, Woonsdag (“Wednesday”), Danish -, Norwegian Bokmål -, Norwegian Nynorsk -, Swedish onsdag (“Wednesday”), Faroese ónsdagur (“Wednesday”), Icelandic óðinsdagur (“Wednesday”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Time & Calendar