venerdì

Venerdì is the Italian name for Friday, the fifth day of the week in the ISO 8601 standard, where weeks typically begin on Monday. The term comes from the Latin dies Veneris, meaning “day of Venus,” named after the Roman goddess Venus. It has cognates in many Romance languages, such as Spanish viernes and French vendredi, all tracing back to the same Latin root.

In everyday Italian, venerdì is used to refer to the day itself and in time expressions like venerdì sera (Friday evening) or venerdì mattina (Friday morning. The word is a masculine noun, usually used with the definite article il: il venerdì, though it can appear without an article when indicating time: venerdì parto.

In culture and religion, Friday is often associated with penitence in Catholic tradition. The day of Venerdì Santo corresponds to Good Friday in the Christian calendar. In many communities, abstinence from meat is traditionally observed on Fridays, particularly outside of Lent.

Capitalization and usage notes: days of the week are not capitalized in Italian except at the start of a sentence; venerdì is written with a grave accent on the i to indicate stress.