What is Friday? This, as you know, is the fifth day of the calendar weekly cycle. In Russian, there is a stable expression "seven Fridays in a week." So they say about a windy, fickle person who often changes his decisions. Let's try to understand the origin of this idiom from different points of view.
What the Great Russian language expert V. I. Dal says about Friday
In Holy Scripture, Friday is the name of Saint Paraskeva, who was cruelly tortured by the pagans for her commitment to Christianity. The Reverend Virgin is especially revered in Russia, her icons heal from physical and mental ailments, protect livestock from disease and death. Interestingly, the very name Paraskeva (Praskovya) in Greek means Friday. This name was given to the girl by her parents in memory of the Passion of the Lord.
Accordingly, the churches and chapels built in honor of the Great Martyr were called Fridays, and it was on the fifth day of the week that the Holy Virgin was supposed to be honored. Dahl's dictionary says that on Fridays people did not work, marking the dayParaskeva.
Surely some people spent too much time in the temples, they, figuratively speaking, had seven Fridays a week. The meaning of phraseologism in this case evokes thoughts of idleness, idleness, excessive piety. But what about the inconstancy and windiness? For now, the question remains open.
Scientific and ethnographic version of the origin of phraseologism
According to the researcher of folk life scientist Sergei Vasilievich Maksimov, the established expression originates from the ancient, even pre-Christian past of the Slavs. It seems like in Russia Friday was a day off, intended for making trade deals. Often, both sellers and buyers did not fulfill their obligations to deliver or pay for the goods. Such dishonest citizens were said to have seven Fridays a week.
This option, although the most common explanation, but still leads to some thought. Firstly, the week, as a calendar cycle, was called the week by the Slavs. Secondly, the last day was still a non-working day, which was reflected in its name: “week” ─ to do nothing. Thirdly, taking into account the fact that people were mainly engaged in agriculture and handicraft production, what kind of days off could we even talk about? Something is wrong here…
Friday in Russian legends and beliefs
Since ancient times, the fifth day of the week was considered mystical, unlucky, unsuccessful for new initiatives. For example, there was such a saying: “Do not start business inFriday, otherwise they will back away. It is understood that the undertaking conceived on this day is doomed to failure in advance. Imagine a person whose work does not go well on any day, whatever he undertakes, everything goes awry. Naturally, no one wanted to start business relations with such clumsiness, you can’t rely on him for anything, because everything falls out of his hands.
It is also noteworthy that initially the phraseological unit "seven Fridays in a week" was given meaning exclusively with a feminine coloring. On Fridays, it was not allowed to spin yarn, since the process was necessarily accompanied by wetting the fingers with saliva. And to spit on Friday is a great sin, on this day Christ accepted the torment on the cross and was spat on by enemies. When they said that a woman has seven Fridays a week, they meant that a woman constantly shirks from work.
Heels and Friday ─ are they words with the same root or not?
Do you know the expression "back heels"? It is precisely this, if you think about it, that is very close in terms of semantic subtext to the phraseological unit under study. This implies that a person who has made a decision immediately refuses it, moves back.
It is possible that earlier in Russian the meaning of the word "Friday" had a slightly different connotation and was pronounced with the stress on the penultimate syllable. Derived from the verb "retreat", it meant "retreat, evasion". Then the meaning of the expression "seven Fridays in the week" becomes absolutely clear. So you can characterize a person who constantly backs away,renounces his promises, evades previous commitments.
Over time, similar-sounding words united into one whole, which is far from uncommon in Russian. This version is also supported by the fact that in some folk sayings the word "Friday" is used with the wrong stress. For example, girls who are guessing about the coming dream say the phrase: “Friday ─ Friday, whoever loves will dream.”
