Word Drift

Word Drift · 4:00:05 · four-hour collection

Who named time? The strange names of days, months, weeks and hours

This four-hour collection joins four Word Drift episodes into one night of listening: the days of the week (sun, moon, Tiw, Woden, Thor, Frigg and Saturn), the months (why September, October, November and December kept old Roman numbers), why the week has seven days, and why the clock says AM and PM (ante meridiem and post meridiem, before and after midday).

Watch on YouTube YouTube title: Strange Names of Time: The Complete Collection (4 Hours) | History for Sleep

The four parts

  1. Why do the days of the week have such strange names?
  2. Why is September called the seventh month when it is the ninth?
  3. Why does a week have seven days?
  4. What do AM and PM mean, and why does twelve come twice?

Each part page has its own chapters, questions and full transcript.

Chapters

  1. Part 1 · Days of the Week: settle in
  2. Ordinary names, strange histories
  3. What a week really is
  4. Seven lights in the sky
  5. Rome and the planetary week
  6. Names travel north
  7. Sunday and Monday
  8. Tuesday, Tiw's day
  9. Wednesday, Woden's day
  10. Thursday, Thor's day
  11. Friday, Frigg's day
  12. Saturday, Saturn stays
  13. Why seven remains
  14. A shared agreement
  15. Part 2 · The Months: twelve names on the wall
  16. January and Janus, the god of doorways
  17. February, the month of cleansing
  18. March and Mars
  19. April and May
  20. Quintilis and Sextilis become July and August
  21. September to December: the numbers that moved
  22. Why February is so short
  23. Caesar's calendar and the year of confusion
  24. Other calendars, other months
  25. Part 3 · Why a Week Has Seven Days
  26. Moonlight over Mesopotamia
  27. The Sabbath count
  28. Why the days come in this order
  29. Rome's eight-day market week
  30. Constantine and the day of the Sun
  31. Bells and the medieval week
  32. France tries a ten-day week
  33. Soviet five- and six-day weeks
  34. How the weekend was born
  35. Why seven, after all
  36. Part 4 · AM and PM: two letters beside the bed
  37. Finding the middle of the day
  38. Before clocks had equal hours
  39. Why twelve returns twice
  40. The Latin hiding on the clock
  41. Noon moves from town to town
  42. The clock makes twelve mechanical
  43. The puzzle of twelve
  44. Why twenty-four hours did not replace them
  45. A phrase that survived its language
  46. The Sun inside two letters

Questions this episode answers

What episodes are in the Strange Names of Time collection?

Days of the Week, The Months (Why September Is Still Called the Seventh), Why Does a Week Have Seven Days?, and Why We Say AM and PM, joined with soft crossfades and the repeated sign-offs removed.

How long is it?

Just over four hours (4:00:05), with 46 chapters so you can find your place.

Can I listen to each part separately?

Yes. Each part is also its own full episode on the Word Drift channel and on this site.