Today’s Word of the Week is actually just inspired by www.etymonline.com‘s trending word list, LOL. Which is funny, because those who know me well know that my church has actually opted to keep Saturday as the Sabbath rather than Sunday, so you might think I have an agenda with this word…but in fact, it just has an interesting history!
Our word for sabbath does come directly from the Hebrew shabbath (that ‘th’ is pronounced like a ‘t’), which is from the verb shabath, literally meaning “he rested.” In English it was spelled sabbat until the 16th century. Interesting to note that it didn’t just mean “a day of rest” but specifically “Saturday as a day of rest” until the 15th century. Up until then, though the Christian Church had adopted Sunday as their official day of worship long before, they never called it the Sabbath, only the Lord’s Day.
But the part that I actually found interesting here is that the very word for Saturday in many languages comes from sabbath–pretty much all Latin or Greek derived languages, including Spanish, Italian, French, German, Romanian, Hungarian, and many more.
English’s Saturday is of course from Saturn–and was preserved in English and other Norse languages largely because they had no god that would compete with the Roman Saturn, so they felt no objection to it when the Romans brought that name for the day of the week to their regions, LOL. But as Christianity spread in other regions, it was changed in the languages mentioned above away from the name of a Roman god and to something in keeping with biblical principles.
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary. 
This is really interesting! I knew that "Sabbath" was a day of rest, but didn't realize that it specifically designated Saturday as part of the definition!
The church we were going to had Saturday services. We now go to one the has church on Sunday.I grew up going to church on Sundays, so that Saturday service took a while to get used to.
Oh us too! And completely agree with that statement – not a have-to, but a get-to. <3
We've found it be such a blessing! Not a have-to, but a get-to.
We're not apart of a church, but my family and I keep Saturday as our Sabbath too, as do several of our family-friends. 🙂
Oh, cool! What denomination are you?
I also worship on Saturday!