day

pronunciation

How to pronounce day in British English: UK [deɪ] word uk audio image

How to pronounce day in American English: US [deɪ] word us audio image

Noun:

time for Earth to make a complete rotation on its axis
some point or period in time
the time after sunrise and before sunset while it is light outside
a day assigned to a particular purpose or observance
the recurring hours when you are not sleeping (especially those when you are working)
an era of existence or influence
a period of opportunity
the period of time taken by a particular planet (e.g. Mars) to make a complete rotation on its axis
the time for one complete rotation of the earth relative to a particular star, about 4 minutes shorter than a mean solar day

Word Origin

day: day: [OE] Day and its Germanic relatives (German tag, Dutch, Danish, and Swedish dag, and Gothic dags) come from a prehistoric Germanic *dagaz. It seems likely that the ultimate source of this was the Indo-European base *dhegh-, which also produced Sanskrit dah- ‘burn’ and nidāgha- ‘heat, summer’, and that the underlying etymological meaning of day is thus ‘time when the sun is hot’.=> dawn

day (n.): Old English dæg "day," also "lifetime," from Proto-Germanic *dagaz "day" (cognates: Old Saxon, Middle Dutch, Dutch dag, Old Frisian dei, Old High German tag, German Tag, Old Norse dagr, Gothic dags), according to Watkins, from PIE *agh- (2) "a day" considered as a span of time. He adds that the Germanic initial d- is "of obscure origin." Not considered to be related to Latin dies (see diurnal), but rather to Sanskrit dah "to burn," Lithuanian dagas "hot season," Old Prussian dagis "summer." Meaning originally, in English, "the daylight hours;" expanded to mean "the 24-hour period" in late Anglo-Saxon times. The day formerly began at sunset, hence Old English Wodnesniht was what we would call "Tuesday night." Names of the weekdays were not regularly capitalized in English until 17c. Day off first recorded 1883; day-tripper first recorded 1897. The days in nowadays, etc. is a relic of the Old English and Middle English use of the adverbial genitive.