Day by Day

The Old English word for day (daegh) probably tracks back to a Sanskrit word meaning “the burning time,” a reference to the hot sun. [See ALL IN A DAY’S WORK, September 13, 2007]

In this entry, I’d like to focus on a few of the words that contain the word day while expressing it in covert fashion. The point? Love of words, plain and simple.

• adjourn: to put off until another day [L. ad, to + diurnus, day]
• biduous: lasting for two days [L. bi-, two + dies, day.]
• circadian: designating physiological activity which occurs approximately every twenty-four hours, or the rhythm of such activity. [L. circa, about + dies, day]
• daisy: the familiar flower [OE dæges éage day's eye, eye of day]
• Decameron: Boccaccio’s tales, allegedly told in ten days [Gr. deka, ten + hemera, day]
• dial (sundial): an instrument serving to tell the hour of the day by means of the sun's shadow upon a graduated surface [L. dialis, daily]
• diary: daily record of events [L. dies, day]
• diurnal: occupying one day [L. diurnalis, daily]
• du jour: that which is chosen or allocated for a particular day [Fr. du jour, of the day] NOTE: therefore, never ask for the soup du jour of the day.
• ephemeral: fleeting; temporary [Gr. epi, for + hemera, day]
• hemeralopia: a visual defect in which the eyes see indistinctly, or not at all, by daylight, but tolerably well by night or artificial light [Gr. hemera, day + alaos, blind + ops, eye]
• hemerine: belonging to a day, esp. a fever [Gr. hemera, day]
• hodiernal: pertaining to the present day [L. hodie, today]
• journal: a daily record [Fr. jour, day]
• journey: the distance travelled in a day or a specified number of days [Fr. journée, a day’s travel] NOTE: in the Middle Ages, approximately 20 miles constituted a day’s journey.
• meridian: relating to noon [L. medius, middle + dies, day]
• pridian: relating to the previous day [L. pri, before + dies, day]
• procrastinate: put off until the day after [L. pro, for + cras, tomorrow]
• quotidian: pertaining to every day [L. quotidie, every day]
• sojourn: a temporary stay in a place [Fr. jour, day]
• ultradian: designating cycles of physiological activity which recur with a period shorter than one day but longer than one hour [L. ultra, beyond + dies, day]

SIDEBAR: Day by Day (me faz bem) by Luca Mundaca

SIDEBAR: Chastity Bono: Day by Day (Ceremony)

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All in a Day's Work

Our word day had its immediate ancestor in the Old English daeg. I must admit that I was surprised when the Oxford English Dictionary told me that it is “in no way related to the Latin dies”; I would have thought it was. Instead, its predecessors (Aryan, Sanskrit, Lithuanian) carried the meaning "the hot or burning time."

We still retain the word now-a-days, also rendered as here-a-days centuries ago, and it is fitting that it was once balanced by then-a-days.

Evidently, in the day, there were many days dedicated to certain customs, events, or duties, and many phrases containing -days as a combining form were thus formed. With no particular rhyme or reason, here are some of them, all culled from the OED.

• bind days: days on which tenants were bound to render stated unpaid service to their feudal lord; boon-days.
• chair-days: old age, when rest in a chair is the most natural condition.
• daft days: the days of merriment at Christmas.
• darg-days: days of work done in lieu of rent or due to the feudal lord. [syncopated form of daywork]
• dog-days: the days about the time of the heliacal rising of the Dog-star; noted from ancient times as the hottest and most unwholesome period of the year.
• Egyptian days: the two days in each month which were believed to be unlucky.
• fern-days, days of old. [ON forn, ancient]
• fuir-days: Late in the day. [far days, forth days]
• gang-days: the three days preceding Ascension-day or Holy Thursday; also called Rogation-days. [so called from the processions held on these days; gang = way or passage.]
• Indicant Days: among Physicians, those Days which signify that a crisis or change in a disease will happen on such a day.
• Nestor's days: old age, long life. [wise old king mentioned in the Iliad]
• riding days: the days of Border raiding. [Scotland]
• roaring days (Austral.): the time of the Australian gold-rush.
• Robin Hood's days: festival time, when a mummer’s play would present the story of Robin Hood.
• salad days: days of youthful inexperience.
• ship's days: the days allowed for loading and unloading a ship.
• the last days: the period including and immediately preceding the Last Judgement.

SIDEBAR: this day in history

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