Surprising Shared Word Etymologies
I had always thought it a strange coincidence that in Japanese, sunday is 'sun day' and monday is 'moon day'.<p>At least in japanese, the other days of the week are also associated with celestial bodies, tuesday 'fire day', wednesday 'water day', thursday 'wood day', friday 'gold day', and saturday 'dirt day'.<p>mars: fire planet<p>mercury: water planet<p>jupiter: wood planet<p>venus: gold planet<p>saturn: dirt planet<p>If you're familiar with any romance language, the days of the week associate correctly with the names of the planets (martis, mercurii, jovis); and in english the rough translations into anglo-saxon/norse gods applies (tyr/tiw, thor, freija)<p>Apparently it's unlikely to be an accident, but it's a very ancient connection, via the chinese, who have in more recent times ditched the system.