A name used in the Shire at the end of the Third Age for the fifth of the seven days that made up the week. Its form is conveniently similar to moden 'Wednesday', but in fact the word's origins were entirely different. 'Hensday' is a shorter version of 'Hevensday' (an alternative form still in use in the late Third Age), and both of these derive from the archaic Hevenesdei, meaning 'Heavens' Day'. This was itself an adaptation of the Elvish day-name that would have been more commonly used in Middle-earth, which was Menelya.
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Dating the emergence of the form Hensday is difficult, because all we're told directly is that both Hevensday and Hensday were later variants of Hevenesdei, and that both were in use at the end of the Third Age. Given the structure of the two forms, it seems hard to avoid the conclusion that Hevensday appeared first, as a direct derivation from Hevenesdei, and then Hensday arose as a later, abbreviated version of the name. We have, however, no direct evidence for this line of development, nor any basis for its dating (except to say that it occurred during the last thousand years of the Third Age).
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- Updated 28 May 2024
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