Reconstruction:Proto-West Germanic/Wōdanas dag

This Proto-West Germanic entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Proto-West Germanic

Etymology

From *Wōdanas (“Woden's, Odin's”) +‎ *dag (“day”), calque of Latin dīes Mercuriī (“Wednesday”, literally “day of Mercury”).

Modern English Wednesday does not continue the Old English wōdnesdæġ but rather unattested Old English *wēdnesdæġ, the direct cognate to Old Frisian wednesdei and Middle Dutch wenesdach. All these umlauted (i-mutated) forms do not continue *Wōdanas dag but rather *Wōdinas dag, indicating a variation in the theonym in early West Germanic, i.e., *Wōdanaz vs. *Wōdinaz.

Noun

*Wōdanas dag (m)

1. Wednesday

Inflection

Masculine a-stem
	Singular
Nominative	*Wōdanas dag, *Wōdanas daga
Genitive	*Wōdanas dagas
	Singular	Plural
Nominative	*Wōdanas dag, *Wōdanas daga	*Wōdanas dagōs
Accusative	*Wōdanas dag, *Wōdanas daga	*Wōdanas dagā
Genitive	*Wōdanas dagas	*Wōdanas dagō
Dative	*Wōdanas dagē	*Wōdanas dagum
Instrumental	*Wōdanas dagu	*Wōdanas dagum

Descendants

• Old English: wōdnesdæġ, *wēdnesdæġ
  • Middle English: Wednesday, wedenesday, wednesday, Wednesdei, Wedonesday, weodnesdei (AB language), wodnysday (Kent), wodeinsday, Wodenysday, wodnesdai, wodinsdai (Oxfordshire), Wannysday, Wanysday, Wennessday, Wensday, Wonnysday, wonysday (syncopic, mostly Late Middle English)
    • English: Wednesday
      • → Māori: Wenerei
    • Middle Scots: Wedinsday, Wednisday, Wadinsday
      • Scots: Wadensday, Wednesday
    • Yola: Wennesdei
• Old Frisian: *wōdensdei, wedenesdei, wednesdei
  • North Frisian: weedensdai, weensdi
  • West Frisian: woansdei
• Old Saxon: *wōdanesdag
  • Middle Low German: wōdensdach, gūdenesdach, gūdensdach, gunsdach, gudesdach, gūdenesdach, gūdenstach, gūnstach, kudensdach, wodenesdach, wodensdach, woensdach, wōnesdach, wōnsdach, wūnsdach
    • Low German: Goonsdag, Godenstag, Gonstag, Gaunstag, Gunstag
      • Dutch Low Saxon: woensdag, woonsdag, wonsdag
      • German Low German: Woonsdag
    • → German: Wodenstag (archaic), Wotanstag (learned calque)
• Old Dutch: *wuodansdag
  • Middle Dutch: woedensdag
    • Dutch: woensdag
      • Afrikaans: Woensdag
      • Jersey Dutch: Wônsdix
      • Negerhollands: wuensdag, woensdag
      • → Lokono: wunsdakha, onsdakha
      • → Mohegan-Pequot: wonsartar
    • West Flemish: woensdag, oensdag
    • Limburgish: goonsdig, goonsdag, wuensdag
• Old High German: *wuotanstag
  • Middle High German: *wuotenstac
    • ⇒ Middle High German: guotentac, guotemtac, *guotenstac (rare, regional)
      • Central Franconian: Jodesdaach (archaic)
• → Old Norse: óðinsdagr (calque)
  • Icelandic: óðinsdagur
  • Faroese: ónsdagur
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: onsdag
  • Elfdalian: ųosdag
  • Old Swedish: ōþinsdagher
    • Swedish: onsdag
  • Old Danish: othænsdagh
    • Danish: onsdag
      • Norwegian Bokmål: onsdag
  • Gutnish: onsdag, onsdagar

See also

Days of the week in Proto-West Germanic · *wikōn dagō (layout · text)
*Mānini dag	*Tīwas dag	*Wōdanas dag	*Þunras dag	*Frījā dag	*Sāturnas dag	*Sunnōn dag