An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Samstag

by Friedrich Kluge

Samstag, masculine, ‘Saturday,’ properly a Upper German and Rhenish word (in Middle German and Low German Sonnabend), from Middle High German samȥtac, sampstac, Old High German sambaȥtac. In Dutch zaterday, Low German sâterdach, Anglo-Saxon sœternesdœg, English Saturday, which, like the equivalent Old Irish dia sathairnn and Albanian šëtúne, are based on Latin Saturni dies, unknown to Romance; in Old Icelandic laugardagr, þváttdagr (literally ‘bathing day’). From the ecclesiastical Latin sabbati dies (whence French samedi, Italian sabbato, Provençal dissapte, and Irish sapait), Old High German sambaȥ-tac, Modern High German Samstag cannot be derived, for such a derivation does not explain the High German nasal; nor can the t of an ecclesiastical Latin word be changed to ȥ. Since Old Slovenian sąbota, Magy. szombat, and Rouman. sămbătă are the most closely allied to Old High German sambaȥ-, we may perhaps assume that it is of Eastern origin, which supposition is supported by the fact that Bavarian pfinz-tac, ‘Thursday,’ is borrowed from Greek πέμπτη (see Pfinztag). Although Greek *σαμβατον, a parallel form of σάββατον, has not yet been discovered, we may infer its existence from Persian šamba almost with certainty; the corresponding Arabic, Ethiop., and Abyss. words have also a medial mb. It is manifest that an Oriental term, sambato, of the 5th century was introduced into Upper German and Slavonic through Greek (along with Arianism, see Kirche and Pfaffe); yet it is strange that Ulfilas uses sabbatô dags without any nasal (compare Gothic aíkklêsjô with West-Teutonic kirika, from κυριακόν).