[geeks] Now for something completely geek

[der Mouse]

>> (Moon-day, Tiw's-day, Woden's-day, Thor's-day, Frey's-day
>> Saturn-day, Sun-day.)  French I'm much less sure of the origins of
>> (lundi, mardi, mercredi, jeudi, vendredi, samedi, dimanche - I can
>> see lune-day (=Moon-day) in lundi, but the rest are obscure to me).

> Lundi - moon-day
> mardi - mars-day
> mercredi - mercury-day
> jeudi - ?jove?-day
> vendredi - ?venus?-day

> I don't remember the derivations of the rest.

I asked a francophone colleague of mine who's a bit of an astrologer
and alchemist, and he suggested that they are named after the seven
"planets" of antiquity - rather a superset of your suggestion:

lundi		Moon
mardi		Mars
mercredi	Mercury
jeudi		Jupiter
vendredi	Venus
samedi		Saturn
dimanche	Sun

It wasn't at all clear to me how to get "dimanche" from the Sun, or
even from "soleil".  On a hunch, I tried http://www.dictionnaire.com/,
and, after chasing through a few links, I found claimed derivations
from latin:

lundi		"lunae dies", "Moon's day"
mardi		"Martis dies", "Mars's day"
mercredi	"Mercuri dies", "Mercury's day"
jeudi		"jovis dies", "Jupiter's day"
vendredi	"Veneris dies", "Venus's day"
samedi		"sambadi dies", "Sabbath day"
dimanche	"dies dominicus", "day of the Lord"

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