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sister_luckSo, why Good Friday?
The online etymology dictionary says it's from good meaning holy in Middle English.
German wikipedia claims it's all Martin Luther's fault, but don't provide a source. I remain unconvinced especially as Germans call the day Karfreitag and not Guter Freitag, not even as an unoffical title.
I grew up Protestant, though I'm not an expert on all things Luther, but there is a tendency to attribute word usage to him, because his translation of the Bible was so groundbreaking and thus a first source for many expressions.
A quick internet search has given me the following quotation from Dr. Martin Luther̓s sämmtliche Werke: Homiletische und katechetische Schriften
"Wer den stillen Freitag und den Ostertag nicht hat, hat keinen guten Tag im Jahr"
a rough translation of which would be
Those who don't have the quiet Friday and the day of Easter, do not have a good day in the year.
This reminds me of the joke about what to do with 360 used condoms (the punchline involves the name of a famous tire manufacturer) but it is definitely not evidence for Martin Luther coming up with Guter Freitag. Quiet Friday maybe, but that hasn't caught on much either.
Google books gave me this which has pre-Luther quotations and also says that there was similar usage in the north of France from the 13th century onwards. Thank you, Christiane Wanzeck and your book "Zur Etymologie Lexikalisierter Farbwortverbindungen: Untersuchungen Anhand Der Farben Rot, Gelb, Grün und Blau". Apparently that whole week used to be called "Good" as was every single day.
So, definitely not Luther.
And with this not so fascinating fact I'll leave you and return to my marking pile!
The online etymology dictionary says it's from good meaning holy in Middle English.
German wikipedia claims it's all Martin Luther's fault, but don't provide a source. I remain unconvinced especially as Germans call the day Karfreitag and not Guter Freitag, not even as an unoffical title.
I grew up Protestant, though I'm not an expert on all things Luther, but there is a tendency to attribute word usage to him, because his translation of the Bible was so groundbreaking and thus a first source for many expressions.
A quick internet search has given me the following quotation from Dr. Martin Luther̓s sämmtliche Werke: Homiletische und katechetische Schriften
"Wer den stillen Freitag und den Ostertag nicht hat, hat keinen guten Tag im Jahr"
a rough translation of which would be
Those who don't have the quiet Friday and the day of Easter, do not have a good day in the year.
This reminds me of the joke about what to do with 360 used condoms (the punchline involves the name of a famous tire manufacturer) but it is definitely not evidence for Martin Luther coming up with Guter Freitag. Quiet Friday maybe, but that hasn't caught on much either.
Google books gave me this which has pre-Luther quotations and also says that there was similar usage in the north of France from the 13th century onwards. Thank you, Christiane Wanzeck and your book "Zur Etymologie Lexikalisierter Farbwortverbindungen: Untersuchungen Anhand Der Farben Rot, Gelb, Grün und Blau". Apparently that whole week used to be called "Good" as was every single day.
So, definitely not Luther.
And with this not so fascinating fact I'll leave you and return to my marking pile!
