Sunday (English)

Where does "Sunday" come from?

The English word 'Sunday' comes from Middle English 'Sonday', which descends from Old English 'sunnandæġ', meaning 'day of the sun'[1]. This Old English term derives from Proto-West Germanic '*sunnōn dag'[1], acting as a direct calque of the Latin phrase 'diēs Sōlis'[1], which was famously declared the venerable day of the sun by Roman Emperor Constantine in 321 C.E.[1] The underlying Germanic elements trace back through Proto-Germanic forms like '*sunnǭ' and '*dagaz'[7][11], ultimately connecting to ancient Indo-European roots for the sun and the sky.

Open questions

• The derivation of Proto-Germanic *dagaz from the Proto-Indo-European root *dʰegʷʰ is uncertain because the loss of labialization would be irregular. [8]
• The feminization of Proto-Germanic *sunnǭ may have been influenced by Germanic mythology or formed an opposing gender pair with the masculine word for moon. [9]
• The origin of the initial d in Latin diēs remains a puzzle, with proposed explanations including dialect borrowing, Lindeman's law, and Proto-Italic allophony. [12]

Full etymology tree

• Sunday (English), 'On Sunday.'
  • inherited Sonday (Middle English), 'Sunday (first day of the week)'
    • inherited sunnandæg (Old English), 'Sunday'
      • inherited *Sunnōn dag (Proto-West Germanic), 'Sunday'
        • calque dies Solis (Latin), 'Sunday'
        • compound *Sunnōn (Proto-West Germanic)
          • derived *sunnā (Proto-West Germanic), 'sun'
            • inherited *sunnǭ (Proto-Germanic), 'the sun'
              • derived *sunnô (Proto-Germanic), 'the sun'
              • inherited *sh̥₂uén- (Proto-Indo-European)
                • derived *sóh₂wl̥ (Proto-Indo-European), 'sun'
        • compound *dag (Proto-West Germanic), 'day'
          • inherited *dagaz (Proto-Germanic), 'day (the period between sunrise and sunset)'

Ancestors

• *dʰegʷʰ- (Proto-Indo-European)
• Sonday (Middle English)
• sunnandæg (Old English)
• *Sunnōn dag (Proto-West Germanic)
• dies Solis (Latin)

Cognates and doublets

• søndag (Danish)
• zondag (Dutch)
• Sonntag (German)
• Sünndag (German Low German)
• Sundai (Saterland Frisian)
• snein (West Frisian)

Related words

• week (English)

Sources

1. Sunday (English) - Wiktionary
2. dies Solis (Latin) - Wiktionary
3. sunnandæg (Old English) - Wiktionary
4. Sunnōn dag (Proto-West Germanic) - Wiktionary
5. Sonday (Middle English) - Wiktionary
6. dag (Proto-West Germanic) - Wiktionary
7. sunnā (Proto-West Germanic) - Wiktionary
8. dagaz (Proto-Germanic) - Wiktionary
9. sunnǭ (Proto-Germanic) - Wiktionary
10. sunne (Old English) - Wiktionary
11. dæg (Old English) - Wiktionary
12. dies (Latin) - Wiktionary
13. sol (Latin) - Wiktionary

Updated October 2026

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Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris