Today, Saturday has two names in modern
Standard German. The first word, , is always used in
Austria,
Liechtenstein, and the German-speaking part of
Switzerland, and generally used in southern and western
Germany. It derives from
Old High German , the first part (
sambaz) of which derives from
Greek , and this Greek word derives from
Hebrew , . The current German word for Sabbath is . The second name for Saturday in German is , which derives from Old High German , and is closely related to the
Old English word . It means literally "Sun eve", i.e., "The day before Sunday". is generally used in northern and eastern Germany, and was the official name for Saturday in
East Germany. Even if these two names are used regionally differently, they are usually understood at least passively in the other part. In West Frisian there are also two words for Saturday. In Wood Frisian it is . In Clay Frisian it is , derived from , a combination of Old Frisian , meaning
sun and
joen, meaning eve. In the
Westphalian dialects of
Low Saxon, in
East Frisian Low Saxon and in the
Saterland Frisian language, Saturday is called , also akin to
Dutch , which has the same linguistic roots as the English word
Saturday. It was formerly thought that the English name referred to a deity named
Sætere who was venerated by the pre-Christian peoples of north-western Germany, some of whom were the ancestors of the
Anglo-Saxons. Sætere was identified as either a god associated with the
harvest of possible
Slav origin, or another name for
Loki a complex deity associated with both good and evil; this latter suggestion may be due to
Jacob Grimm. Regardless,modern dictionaries derive the name from
Saturn. In most
languages of India, Saturday is , meaning day, based on
Shani, the
Hindu god manifested in the planet
Saturn. Some
Hindus fast on Saturdays to reverse the ill effects of Shani as well as pray to and worship the deity
Hanuman. In the
Thai solar calendar of
Thailand, the day is named from the
Pali word for Saturn, and the
color associated with Saturday is
purple. In
Pakistan, Saturday is , meaning the week. In Eastern Indian languages like Bengali Saturday is called , meaning Saturn's Day and is the first day of the Bengali Week in the
Bengali calendar. In
Islamic countries, Fridays are considered as the last or penultimate day of the week and are holidays along with
Thursdays or Saturdays; Saturday is called , (cognate to
Sabbath) and it is the first day of the week in many
Arab countries but is the (second-to-)last day in other Islamic countries such as
Indonesia,
Malaysia,
Brunei, and
Central Asian countries. In
Japanese, the word Saturday is , , meaning 'soil day' and is associated with , : Saturn (the planet), literally meaning "soil star". Similarly, in
Korean the word Saturday is , , also meaning earth day. The element Earth was associated with the planet Saturn in
Chinese astrology and philosophy. The modern
Māori name for Saturday, , literally means "washing-day" – a vestige of early
colonized life when Māori converts would set aside time on the Saturday to wash their whites for
Church on Sunday. A common alternative Māori name for Saturday is the transliteration .
Quakers traditionally referred to Saturday as "Seventh Day", eschewing the "
pagan" origin of the name. In
Scandinavian countries, Saturday is called , , or , the name being derived from the old word
laugr/laug (hence
Icelandic name ), meaning bath, thus
Lördag equates to bath-day. This is due to the
Viking practice of bathing on Saturdays. The roots
lör,
laugar and so forth are cognate to the English word
lye, in the sense of detergent. The
Finnish and
Estonian names for the day, and , respectively, are also derived from this term. ==Position in the week==