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Tuesday is the second day of the week according to the international standard ISO 8601, and is situated between Monday and Wednesday.
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Origins of the name
See Days of the week for more on naming conventions.
Planetary
The name comes from Middle English Tiwesday, from Old English Tiwes dæg, named after the Nordic god Tyr, who was the equivalent of the Roman war god Mars, and Greek god Ares.
In Latin, it is called Martis dies which means "Mars's Day". In Romance languages except Portuguese, the word for "Tuesday" is similar to the Latin name: mardi in French, martes in Spanish, martedì in Italian, dimarts in Catalan, and marţi in Romanian.
The surviving Celtic languages preserve the Latin names,1 although none of these languages are descended from Latin. Tuesday is dé máirt in Irish, Meurzh in Breton,2 dydd Mawrth in Welsh3 and Dimàirt in Scottish Gaelic.456
The English and Scandinavian names are derived from the Nordic god Týr (Old English Tiw):
- Old Frisian: tîesdei
- Modern West Frisian: tiisdei
- Old English: tíwesdæg
- Anglo-Norman:
- Middle English: tíesdæi, tywesdai, twysday
- Early Modern English: towesday, Twesdaie, Tyisday, Tiseday,
- Modern English: Tuesday
- Old High German: zîestag
- Middle High German: zîstag
- Alemannic German: ziischtig
- Old Norse: týrsdagr
The German word Dienstag, as well as Low German Dingsdag, Deensdag and Dutch Dinsdag (from the 13th century, MHG dinsdag, dinsedag, dincetag, dinstag, dingstag) is probably due to interpretation as dies judicii (thing day) or dies census in popular etymology (Grimm). Another possibility is direct derivation from the god referred to by the Romans as Mars Thingsus, the god of the Thing,7 who could likely be Tyr, as well.8
The speech of Old Bavaria, also from the 13th century, used ertag (erihtag, erehtag, erchtag, erichtag, erntag), from which Jacob Grimm in Deutsche Mythologie postulated Ear as an epithet of Ziu.9
In most of the Indian Languages as well as Nepali and Urdu the word for Tuesday is Mangalwar, with Mangala being the Sanskrit name for the planet Mars.
Numerical
Portuguese uses numbers instead of pagan names and so their word for "Tuesday" is terça-feira (the third day).
The Russian word for "Tuesday" is vtórnik, meaning "second"; that is, counting Tuesday as the second day of the week.
Quakers traditionally referred to Tuesday as "Third Day" eschewing the pagan origin of the English name "Tuesday". This has also been the custom in Iceland since about the 11th century when Jón Ögmundsson changed it to Þriðjudagur, meaning "Third Day".citation needed
Religious observances
In the Eastern Orthodox Church. Tuesdays are dedicated to Saint John the Baptist. The Octoechos contains hymns on this theme, arranged in an eight-week cycle, that are chanted on Tuesdays throughout the year. At the end of Divine Services on Tuesday, the dismissal begins with the words: "May Christ our True God, through the intercessions of his most-pure Mother, of the honorable and glorious Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John…"
Cultural references
In the Greek world, Tuesday (the day of the week of the Fall of Constantinople) is considered an unlucky day. The same is true in the Spanish-speaking world, where a proverb runs: En martes, ni te cases ni te embarques, meaning, "On Tuesday, neither get married nor begin a journey." For both Greeks and Spanish-speakers, the 13th of the month is considered unlucky if it falls on Tuesday, instead of Friday. In Judaism, on the other hand, Tuesday is considered a particularly lucky day, because in the first chapter of Genesis the paragraph about this day contains the phrase "it was good" twice.
In the Thai solar calendar, the day is named for the Pali word for the planet Mars, which also means "Ashes of the Dead" [2]; the color associated with Tuesday is pink.
In the folk rhyme Monday's Child, "Tuesday's child is full of grace".
In the short-lived animated show The Xs, the daughter's name is Tuesday
In business, particularly office work, one study has shown that Tuesday is usually the most productive day of the week.10
Common occurrences
United States and Canada
Tuesday is the usual day for elections in the United States. Federal elections take place on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November; this date was established by a law of 1845 for presidential elections (specifically for the selection of the Electoral College), and was extended to elections for the House of Representatives in 1875 and for the Senate in 1914. Tuesday was the earliest day of the week which was practical for polling in the early nineteenth century: citizens might have to travel for a whole day to cast their vote, and would not wish to leave on Sunday which was a day of worship for the great majority of them.
In the United States and Canada, most home video and audio releases for purchase or rental occur on Tuesdays. Since this policy began, there have been very few exceptions to this common release day.citations needed
Named days
- Black Tuesday, in the United States, refers to October 29, 1929, part of the great Stock Market Crash of 1929. This was the Tuesday after Black Thursday. The crash is said to have marked the start of the Great Depression.
- Patch Tuesday is the second Tuesday of every month when Microsoft releases patches for their products. Some system administrators call this day Black Tuesday.
- Shrove Tuesday (also called Mardi Gras - fat Tuesday) precedes the first day of Lent in the Western Christian calendar.
- Super Tuesday is the day many American states hold their presidential primary elections.
Sources
- Grimm, Jacob. 1875–78. Deutsche Mythologie. Fourth ed., curated by Elard Hugo Meyer, 3 vols. Berlin: F. Dümmler. Reprinted Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1965.
References
- ^ MacBain, Alexander. An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language. Gairm Publications, 1982 reprint of 1896 original.
- ^ Dicts.info Breton to English to Breton Dictionary
- ^ Welsh-English / English-Welsh On-line Dictionary, University of Wales, Lampeter
- ^ MacFarlane, Malcolm. The School Gaelic Dictionary. Eneas MacKay, Stirling, 1912.
- ^ English-Gaelic Parliamentary Dictionary, published by the Scottish Parliament, 2001.
- ^ Stòr-dàta Briathrachais Gàidhlig
- ^ VERCOVICIVM, Hadrian's Wall Fort and Settlement retrieved April 14, 2008
- ^ Temporini, Hildegard and Wolfgang Haase. Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt. Walter de Gruyter, 1986. ISBN 3-11-010050-9. Page 77. [1]
- ^ Grimm 1875–78,citation needed.
- ^ Tuesday is most productive day - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:
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- This page was last modified on 2 December 2008, at 21:12.
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