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NOTE ON FRIDAY BEING 'UNLUCKY' From: Today I Found Out Some theorize that Friday being unlucky predated Christianity. The name “Friday” was chosen in honour of the Norse goddess Frigg, also known as Freyja, who was the multi-talented goddess of love, beauty, wisdom, war, death, and magic. Teutonic people are thought to have considered the day extremely unlucky, especially for weddings, due in part to the lovely goddess the day was named for. Later, the Christian church attempted to demonize the goddess, so that may or may not be a contributing factor as well. Whatever the case, despite these quite old origin theories, well documented instances of the notion that Friday was popularly considered unlucky among the masses doesn’t seem to have popped up until around the mid-17th century. Within the next two centuries after that, the idea continued to spread and by the 19th century was nearly ubiquitous in certain cultures. EXAMPLE From: Supposes: A Comedy Written in the Italian tongue by Ariosto Englished by George Gascoigne, 1566 Edited by Thomas Hawkins, 1773 Wily Beguiled
4 Comments
wordlover
26/7/2014 11:36:13 am
I really like how you have set up your new website.
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Thank you wordlover!
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Karen Alexander
26/10/2022 06:36:28 pm
I've tried to find the phrase since I saw it in a Regency period novel but no luck. I have a sense of the meaning of "bosom bows," but haven't found it. I love your website! Any idea where the phrase originated? Thanks for all your hard work!
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28/10/2022 12:58:04 pm
It seems Friday-faced most likely came from Friday being a day of fasting.
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