Friday is ... The meaning of the word and the popular beliefs associated with it

What is Friday? This is known to be the fifth day of the calendar week cycle. In Russian there is a stable expression "seven Fridays in a week". So they talk about a windy, inconstant man, who often changes his decisions. Let's try to understand the origin of this phraseology from different points of view.

What does the connoisseur of the Great Russian language

In Holy Scripture, Friday is the name of Saint Paraskeva, severely tortured by pagans for her adherence to Christianity. The Monk Virgo is especially revered in Russia, her icons are healed from physical and spiritual ailments, protect livestock from diseases and death. Interestingly, the very name Paraskeva (Praskovia) in translation from Greek means Friday. This naming was given to the girl by her parents in memory of the Suffering of the Lord.

Accordingly, the churches and chapels built in honor of the Great Martyr were called Friday, and it was on the fifth day of the week that the Holy Virgin was to be honored. In the dictionary of Dahl it is said that on Fridays the people did not work, marking the day of Paraskeva.

Surely some people spent too much time in the temples, they had seven Fridays, in a figurative way. The meaning of phraseology in this case brings to mind thoughts of idleness, idleness, excessive piety. But what does impermanence and windiness have to do with it? While the question remains open.

Scientific-ethnographic version of the origin of phraseology

According to the researcher of the national life of the scientist Sergey Vasilievich Maksimov, the settled expression takes its roots from the ancient, pre-Christian past of the Slavs. It seems like in Russia, Friday was a day off, designed to make trade transactions. Often both sellers and buyers did not fulfill their obligations to deliver or pay for the goods. About such dishonest citizens they said that they had seven Fridays a week.

This option, although it is the most common explanation, but still suggests some thought. First, a week, like a calendar cycle, was called the Slavs' week. Secondly, the non-working was still the last day, which was reflected in his name: "week" ─ nothing to do. Thirdly, given the fact that people mainly engaged in agriculture and artisanal production, what days off could there be at all? Something's not right ...

Friday in Russian legends and beliefs

Since ancient times, the fifth day of the week was considered mystical, unhappy, unsuccessful for new initiatives. For example, there was such a saying: "Do not start affairs on Friday, or they will retreat." It is understood that the plan conceived on this day is doomed to failure in advance. Imagine a man whose work does not argue on any day, for whatever it takes, everything goes awry. Naturally, with such a clumsy no one wanted to tie business relations, it can not be relied on anything, because everything is getting out of hand.

It is also remarkable that initially the phraseology "seven Fridays in the week" was given exclusively to women's color. On Fridays, it was not allowed to spin the yarn, since the process was necessarily accompanied by the wetting of the fingers with saliva. And to spit on Friday is a big sin, on that day Christ was martyred on the cross and was spat upon by enemies. When they said that the woman had seven Fridays in the week, they meant that the woman constantly shirks her work.

Heels and Friday ─ are these words rooted or not?

Do you know the expression "back of the heel"? It is this, if you think about it, very close to the semantic implication to the phraseology under investigation. Here it is meant that the person who made any decision, immediately rejects it, backs away.

It is possible that earlier in the Russian language the meaning of the word "Friday" had a slightly different hue and was pronounced with emphasis on the penultimate syllable. Formed from the verb "to back off," it meant "retreat, evasion." Then the meaning of the expression "seven Fridays in a week" becomes absolutely clear. So it is possible to characterize a person who constantly backs off, renounces his promises, evades previous commitments.

Over time, close-in-sounding words merged into one whole, which is not uncommon in Russian. In favor of this version, and the fact that in some folk sayings the word "Friday" is used with the wrong accent speaks. For example, girls who are dreaming of a future dream, utter the phrase: "Friday is Friday, whoever loves, he will dream."