weekday
Pluralweekdays
- 1Any day from Monday to Friday, not counting Saturday or Sunday.
Garbage collection falls on a weekday, usually a Tuesday.
Most offices keep regular hours on weekdays and close for the weekend.
Similarworkday
Note
A plain Germanic compound: Old English wicdæġ, week plus day, with close kin in Dutch weekdag, German Wochentag and Swedish veckodag. It works freely as a modifier, as when Modern Railways in 2019 writes of a route's current weekday patterns. Which days it covers depends on where the rest days fall. Under the Islamic reckoning, Friday is the day that drops out instead.
- 2Any day from Sunday through Friday, excluding Saturday, in places where Saturday is the only rest day.
Since Saturday alone is the day off here, Sunday is treated as an ordinary weekday.
Schools run lessons across these weekdays and pause only on Saturday.
Similarworkday
Note
The Sabbath sets the line here: in Jewish usage, the six days from Sunday to Friday are weekdays, and Saturday alone stands apart. Friday therefore remains an ordinary weekday. Set beside the Islamic reckoning, the two calendars agree on Sunday through Thursday and simply trade Friday and Saturday between the working week and the day of rest.
- 3Any day from Saturday through Thursday, excluding Friday, in places where Friday is the day of rest.
Because Friday is set aside for prayer, the working weekday here runs from Saturday to Thursday.
Students attend classes on the six weekdays and rest on Friday.
Similarworkday
Note
Islamic usage builds the week around Friday, the day of congregational prayer. The working week therefore runs from Saturday to Thursday, and Saturday and Sunday both count as ordinary weekdays. When reading or writing about such a calendar, check which reckoning is meant. Here every weekday includes Sunday, a day that the Monday-to-Friday sense would leave out.
- 4Any day from Monday through Saturday, excluding only Sunday, in places where Sunday is the single rest day.
Since Sunday alone is the day of rest, Saturday counts as a normal weekday.
Factories operate across these weekdays and pause only on Sunday.
Similarworkday
Less common meaning
- 5Any single day of the week, Saturday and Sunday included, with no day set apart.
The almanac marked feast days falling on any weekday, the Sabbath not excepted.
Travelers departed on whatever weekdays the weather allowed, Sundays included.
Note
Here the word means exactly what its parts say: any day of the week, with none set apart. This use is now rare, so a modern reader will almost always take weekday to exclude the rest days. In contemporary writing, say "any day of the week" instead, and treat this sense as one to recognize in older texts rather than to use.
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Origin
Inherited from Middle English "wykeday", from Old English "wicdæġ", which by surface analysis is a compound of "week" and "day". It is related to West Frisian "wikedei", Dutch "weekdag", German "Wochentag", Danish "ugedag", Swedish "veckodag", and Norwegian "ukedag".