week

Synonyms

sevennight sennight hebdomad workweek calendar week

Etymology

From Middle English wyke, weke, from Old English wice, wucu (“week”), from Proto-West Germanic *wikā, from Proto-Germanic *wikǭ (“sequence; week”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyg-, *weyk- (“to bend, curve”). Related to weak and dialectal English wick (“corner”); see Proto-Germanic *wīk(w)aną (“to bend, yield, cease”).
Cognate with Scots ouk, oulk (“week”), Yola wick, wik (“week”), North Frisian waag, Week, weg (“week”), Saterland Frisian Wiek, Wíek (“week”), West Frisian wike (“week”), Bavarian Wochn (“week”), Cimbrian boch, bòcha (“week”), Dutch week (“week”), German Woche (“week”), German Low German Week (“week”), Limburgish waek, Wéëk (“week”), Luxembourgish Woch (“week”), Mòcheno boch (“week”), Vilamovian woch (“week”), Yiddish וואָך (vokh, “week”), Danish uge (“week”), Elfdalian wiku, wikå (“week”), Faroese and Icelandic vika (“week”), Jamtish vuku (“week”), Norwegian Bokmål uke (“week”), Norwegian Nynorsk veke, vika, viku, vukku, vuku (“week”), Scanian uga (“week”), Swedish vecka (“week”), Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐌺𐍉 (wikō, “sequence; week”); also Cornish gwigh (“periwinkles, whelks”), Irish faocha, faochóg (“periwinkle”), Latin vicis (“alteration, turn; time”), Ancient Greek εἴκω (eíkō, “to yield”), Albanian vig (“bier, litter, stretcher”), Northern Kurdish avêtin, avitin, avîtin, havêtin, havîtin (“to cast, hurl, throw”), Persian آویختَن (âvixtan, “to hang, suspend”), بیختن (bēxtan / bixtan, “to sieve, sift”). Related also to Old English wīcan (“to yield, give way”), English weak and wick.

Imitative.