Weekday names in Modern Greek and Portuguese

[pauamma]

As I understand, the Portuguese names for Monday to Friday basically mean "second" to "sixth". Modern Greek does the same, but only up to Thursday/"fifth". I'm curious what went on here, if you know. (Language contact is a possibility. As I recall, the Greek and Portuguese names for codfish are striking similar.) But if that's the reason, in which direction did it go, and why the dropped/added day?

Comments

[madfilkentist]

Since I grew up knowing some Greek as a kid (most of which I've forgotten), this question prompted me to dig a little. The Greek word for Friday is Paraskevi. I'd never thought about where it came from. One source says it came from a word meaning "to prepare" and suggests it came from the Jewish tradition of Friday being the day of preparation for the Sabbath. If so, the difference between the Greek and Portuguese names may come from the difference between the Orthodox and Catholic churches. The Greek name for Saturday is Sabato, which obviously comes from Sabbath.

In some ways, Orthodox practices have a closer connection with Judaism; for instance, the date of Orthodox Easter takes the date of Passover into account. Constantinople was comparatively close to what had been Israel, and the Orthodox church may have had more interactions (or less hostile ones) with Jews.

This is all my speculation.