If you already read last week’s word about why the first day of the week is named after the sun, this week’s might be a little boring. But in case you’re coming here fresh JUST for this word, I’m going to include the same generaly history. 😉 So…why is the second day of the week Monday?
First: Monday = Moonday
The Middle English was spelled Monedai and the Old English was mōndæg, which was itself a contraction of mōnandæg (monan meaning “moon”).
The tradition, though, is even more ancient. Scholars believe the astronomical naming of days goes back to the Neo-Babylonian empire, dating to around the time of the Jewish exile in Babylon, though the first written record of the system is from the Roman empire era.
In this naming system, each day is broken up into seven hours, and each hour given the name of a prominent god after whom a celestial body was named. The first hour of each day gave that day its name.
Sunday, therefore, is named after the sun because that day of the week began with the hour of the sun. Monday, on the other hand, began with the hour of the moon–the second in the list of celestial-deities.
Many languages still preserve this tradition. For instance, in French, the word for Monday is Lundi, given that lune is the word for moon.
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Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary. 
