weekends
Word family
Synonym discussion
Sense: noun/1
Weekend (singular) refers to one specific Saturday-Sunday period, used with determiners like 'last', 'this', or 'next' (e.g., 'last weekend was rainy'). Weekends is the plural form, used when speaking about weekend periods in general or in an adverbial sense (e.g., 'I relax on weekends'). Weekdays describes Monday through Friday, the opposite time frame — a learner might say 'I work weekdays and rest weekends.' Holiday implies a longer break from work or school, often lasting several days or weeks (e.g., 'summer holiday'). Break is a more general word for any rest period, from a short coffee break to a school break. For example: 'She visits her grandmother on weekends' (a recurring pattern) vs. 'She visited her grandmother last weekend' (a single event).
Common collocations
Etymology
The word 'weekend' is a compound of 'week' (from Old English wice, wucu, meaning a seven-day cycle) and 'end' (from Old English ende, meaning the final part). It first appeared in the mid-1800s in northern England, where factory workers referred to the period from Saturday afternoon to Sunday night as the 'week-end' — the end of the work week. The plural form 'weekends' emerged naturally as people talked about this period in general or repeatedly. By the early 1900s, the five-day work week became widespread, and 'weekend' entered standard English worldwide.
First known use
1912
1912, in the meaning defined above