Saturday ( or ) is the
day of the
week following
Friday and preceding
Sunday. Saturday is the seventh and therefore last day of the week according to many commonly used calendars, and it is the second-to-last (sixth) day of the week according to ISO 8601 (see below). The Romans named Saturday
Saturni dies ("Saturn's Day") no later than the 2nd century for the planet
Saturn, which controlled the first
hour of that day, according to
Vettius Valens. The day's name was introduced into
West Germanic languages and is recorded in the
Low German languages such as
Middle Low German sater(s)dach,
Middle Dutch saterdag (Modern Dutch
zaterdag) and Old English
Sætern(es)dæg and
Sæterdæg. However, the name was selected as a
calque of
the god Saturn, after whom the planet was named. The day was also referred to as "Sæternes dæge" in an Old English translation of
Bede's
Ecclesiastical History of the English People. In Old English, Saturday was also known as
sunnanæfen ("sun" + "eve" cf. dialectal German
Sonnabend).