week

week period of time shorter than the month, commonly seven days. The ancient Egyptians used a 10-day period, as did the French under the short-lived French Revolutionary calendar . In many regions a four-day to eight-day market week is based on the recurrence of market days; the early Romans observed an eight-day market week. This period also corresponds roughly with the moon's quarter phases, which come every seven or eight days. The seven-day week is said to have originated in ancient times in W Asia, probably in Mesopotamia. This is thought to have been a planetary week predicated on the astrological concept of the influence of the planets, which were long erroneously believed to be seven celestial bodies revolving around the earth; these were the sun and moon and five of the bodies recognized today as planets—Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn. The Hebrew week is based chiefly on the religious observance of the Sabbath , which comes every seventh day and is usually associated with the seventh day of creation, when the Lord rested from his labors. The Christian week and the Muslim week were probably derived chiefly from the Hebrew week, although the weekly holy days are different (Hebrew, Sabbath, seventh day; Christian, Sunday, first day; Muslim, Friday, sixth day). The influence of the weeks of Chaldaeans, Christians, and Jews slowly made itself felt in the Roman Empire, and elements of the systems were probably merged. The planetary week was at first preeminent, and the use of planetary names, based on names of pagan deities, continued even after Constantine (c.321) made the Christian week, beginning on Sunday, official in the civil calendar. The Roman names for the days of the week pervaded Western Europe; in most languages the forms are translations from Latin or attempts to assign corresponding names of divinities. The Latin names, their translations, the English equivalents, and their derivations follow: dies solis [sun's day], Sunday; dies lunae [moon's day], Monday [moonday]; dies Martis [Mars' day], Tuesday [Tiw's day]; dies Mercurii [Mercury's day], Wednesday [Woden's day]; dies Jovis [Jove's or Jupiter's day], Thursday [Thor's day]; dies Veneris [Venus' day], Friday [Frigg's day]; and dies Saturni [Saturn's day], Saturday.

week / wēk/ • n. a period of seven days: the course lasts sixteen weeks he'd cut the grass a week ago. ∎  the period of seven days generally reckoned from and to midnight on Saturday night: she has an art class twice a week. ∎  workdays as opposed to the weekend; the five days from Monday to Friday: I work during the week, so I can only get to this shop on Saturdays. ∎  the time spent working in this period of five to seven days: she works a 48-hour week. ∎  a period of five or seven days devoted to a specified purpose or beginning on a specified day: Super Bowl week the week of June 23. ∎ inf., chiefly Brit. used after the name of a day to indicate that something will happen seven days after that day: the program will be broadcast on Sunday week. PHRASES: week after week during each successive week, esp. over a long period: week after week of overcast skies.week by week gradually and steadily over the weeks: Monday evening demonstrations grew week by week.a week from —— used to state that something is due to happen seven days after the specified day or date: we'll be back a week from Friday.week in, week out every week without exception.

week. The week as a liturgical institution derived from the Jewish observance of the Sabbath. The conception of a day of rest dedicated to God was taken over by the Christians, but transferred to the first day of the week (Sunday) in honour of the Resurrection. The Jewish fasts of Tuesday and Thursday were translated to Wednesday, the day of the Betrayal, and Friday, the day of the Crucifixion. Thursday as a day of rejoicing on account of the Ascension and of the Institution of the Eucharist came into prominence in the early Middle Ages, and Saturday began to be dedicated to the BVM. See also HOLY WEEK.