måndag

Måndag is the Swedish name for Monday, the day that follows Sunday in the weekly cycle. The term is ultimately derived from Old Norse mánadagr, composed of maan- meaning “moon” and dagr meaning “day,” reflecting the historic pattern of naming weekdays after celestial bodies and gods in Germanic languages. The modern form evolved from Early Modern Swedish maan-dag through phonetic changes that produced måndag.

In contemporary Swedish usage, måndag commonly marks the start of the standard workweek. In ISO 8601 and in most European calendars, Monday is considered the first day of the week, with Tuesday through Friday following and the weekend typically consisting of Saturday and Sunday. This arrangement is reflected in school schedules, business hours, and public planning in Sweden.

Culturally, måndag is often associated with the transition from the weekend to the workweek. A common colloquial term is måndagsångest, referring to the anxiety or reluctance some people feel about returning to work or school on Monday. The word is used broadly in everyday language as a reference to the mood or pace of the early week.

As with other weekday names, Måndag is capitalized in Swedish. The term functions as both a semantic label for a day in the calendar and a temporal reference in everyday speech.