laugardagr

Laugardagr is the Old Norse name for Saturday and is part of the traditional Germanic week-day nomenclature. In modern Icelandic, the day is called laugardagur. The form laugardagr appears in Old Norse and medieval Icelandic texts, while the contemporary spelling has shifted to laugardagur, with the definite form laugardaginn used in sentences.

Etymology and meaning are straightforward: laugr means “bath” and dagr means “day,” yielding a literal “bath day.” This reflects a historical practice or association with bathing on Saturdays, a distinction from the other Nordic day-names that often reference gods or celestial bodies. The bath-day interpretation is a defining feature of the Norse-derived names for Saturday.

Historical usage and linguistic development indicate that laugardagr was widely used in Old Norse literature and early Icelandic writing. Over time, the form evolved in Icelandic to the modern laugardagur, while the weekend’s position and function in the calendar remained constant.

Cognate forms exist in other Nordic languages. Danish lørdag, Norwegian lørdag, and Swedish lördag all trace back to the same root meaning “bath day,” though each language developed its own phonological path. In contrast to languages that name Saturday after a planetary or mythological figure, the North Germanic tradition preserves a bath-day etymology in this set of languages.