24059
Recently I learned what the days of the week are and noticed "kinyobi" 金曜日.
I'd like to know where the term "gold" relates to. Were people in ancient
Japan paid at Friday each week?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-05-01T07:13:16.727
24058
2016-08-27T22:35:01.287
2015-06-07T15:14:29.273
1628
9754
question
kanji etymology history
Where does "gold day" originate from?
金 in 金曜日 refers to Venus (金星). In fact, "Fri" in "Friday" also refers to
Venus, also known as Frige's star. Both are almost certainly derived from the
[Roman
names](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_the_days_of_the_week#Greco-
Roman_tradition) for the days of the week.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-05-01T07:30:41.357
24059
2015-05-01T07:30:41.357
578
24058
answer
In addition to Zhen Lin's point, it is also worth noting that the Japanese
names for the days of the week come from Chinese, and classical concepts of
the five elements: **fire** (火), **water** (水), **wood** (木), **metal** (金),
and **earth** (土), plus the two primary celestial bodies, the **sun** (日) and
the **moon** (月).

Read more about the classical Chinese five elements [in the Wu Xing article on
Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Xing).
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-08-27T22:35:01.287
38775
2016-08-27T22:35:01.287
5229
24058
answer