Thunderous Thursday

The history of our word "Thursday:"

Old Germanic had "thonarus daga," which meant "thunder's day" or "day of thunder." The old Germanic god "Thor" got his name by way of the same Germanic base, "thunraz/thonara," that produced the word "thunder;" thus he was "god of thunder." Thor was the eldest son of the main Germanic god, Woden/Wotan/Odin (depending upon dialect/language spelling). Old English initially had "Thunresdaeg," but under the influence of Old Norse,* which had "Thorsdagr, it became "Thurresdaeg" in English, and eventually to the modern spelling. It seems the "n" sound of "thunraz/thondara" died out in Old Norse. Besides English "Thursday," other forms in the Germanic languages are: Swedish, Danish and Norwegian "torsdag," both Dutch "donderdag" and German "Donnerstag" actually still mean "thunder's day."

* Old Norse was another Germanic language, and the forerunner of modern Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and Icelandic, all languages of the North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages. English is part of West Germanic.