Today’s Word of the Day over at @HaggardHawks has caused a bit of a stir:
Quite right too: Friday is the stepping stone into the weekend (and if you’re reading this in the UK, you’ve got a bank holiday weekend to look forward to as well). So why so Friday-faced?
Word of the Day: FRIDAY-FACED (adj.) miserable-looking
— HaggardHawks Words (@HaggardHawks) May 22, 2015
@HaggardHawks Surely it should be Monday-Faced!?
— Lethal Lizzle (@Miss_Lizi) May 22, 2015
@HaggardHawks That's funny, I'd expect a Friday face to be a happy face, unless it's just before you reach that point 😉
— Lynne Stobbart (@DrLynneStobbart) May 22, 2015
Wonder why this has totally reversed? What happened in ye olden times on Sat / Sun? https://t.co/rUEAPu6ARt
— HelenW (@Literarychick2) May 22, 2015
Well, one theory suggests this comes from nothing more than Friday being a traditionally unlucky day. Among sailors and travellers, it’s long been seen as bad luck to begin a voyage on a Friday (a belief that inspired this brilliant urban myth), and likewise Friday is also seen a traditionally inauspicious day on which to be married: the name Friday derives from that of the pagan goddess of beauty and fertility, Frigga, who would apparently become spitefully jealous of any brides wed on her special day.
But is general superstition and ill-starred folklore enough to make someone look gloomy? Probably not. Instead, Friday-faced likely derives from the fact that Friday is a traditional day of fasting, penitence, and abstinence, a religious custom born out of the fact that Jesus is said to have died on a Friday. Although today it’s a tradition most closely associated with Catholicism, abstaining on (what is now) the final day of the working week is actually quite a widespread custom.
So if you’re Friday-faced, chances are you’re just hungry. But never mind—that’s what weekends are for.
But is general superstition and ill-starred folklore enough to make someone look gloomy? Probably not. Instead, Friday-faced likely derives from the fact that Friday is a traditional day of fasting, penitence, and abstinence, a religious custom born out of the fact that Jesus is said to have died on a Friday. Although today it’s a tradition most closely associated with Catholicism, abstaining on (what is now) the final day of the working week is actually quite a widespread custom.
So if you’re Friday-faced, chances are you’re just hungry. But never mind—that’s what weekends are for.
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