W : WEDNESDAY

Wednes-day

-noun
the fourth day of the week, following Tuesday.

-origin
before 950; Middle English Wednesdai, Old English *Wēdnesdæg,  mutated variant of Wōdnesdæg  Woden's day; cognate with Dutch Woensdag, Danish onsdag;  translation of Latin Mercuriī diēs  day of Mercury

the fourth day of the week; third day of the working week.
[Old English Wōdnes dæg  Woden's day, translation of Latin mercurii dies  Mercury's day; related to Old Frisian wōnsdei,  Middle Dutch wōdensdach  (Dutch woensdag )]

-adv
Word History: Days and years are natural divisions of time based on the astronomical relation of the earth and the sun, but weeks and the names for the days of the week have their source in astrology. The practice of dividing the year into seven-day units is based on the ancient astrological notion that the seven celestial bodies (the sun, the moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn) influence what happens on earth and that each controls the first hour of the day named for it. This system was brought into Hellenistic Egypt from Mesopotamia, where astrology had been practiced for millennia and where seven had always been a propitious number. The ancient Romans did not divide their calendar into weeks; they named all the days of the month in relation to the ides, calends, and nones. In a.d. 321 Constantine the Great grafted the Hellenistic astrological system onto the Roman calendar, making the first day of the week a day of rest and worship and imposing the following sequence of names on the days: Dis Slis, "Sun's Day"; Dis Lnae, "Moon's Day"; Dis Martis, "Mars's Day"; Dis Mercuri, "Mercury's Day"; Dis Jovis, "Jove's Day" or "Jupiter's Day"; Dis Veneris, "Venus's Day"; and Dis Saturn, "Saturn's Day." This new Roman system was adopted with modifications throughout most of western Europe. In the Germanic languages, such as Old English, the names of four of the Roman gods were converted into those of the corresponding Germanic gods. Therefore in Old English we have the following names (with their Modern English developments): Sunnandaeg, Sunday; Mnandaeg, Monday; Twesdaeg, Tuesday (Tiu, like Mars, was a god of war); Wdnesdaeg, Wednesday (Woden, like Mercury, was quick and eloquent); Thunresdaeg, Thursday (Thunor in Old English or Thor in Old Norse, like Jupiter, was lord of the sky; Old Norse Thrsdagr influenced the English form); Frgedaeg, Friday (Frigg, like Venus, was the goddess of love); and Saeternesdaeg, Saturday.