isles off Cornwall, a name of unknown origin. Pliny has Silumnus, Silimnis. Perhaps it is connected with the Roman god Sulis (compare Aquae sulis "Bath," literally "waters of Sulis"). The -y might be Old Norse ey "island." The -c- was added 16c.-17c. "[A]bout the only certain thing that can be said is that the c of the modern spelling is not original but was added for distinction from ModE silly as this word developed in meaning from 'happy, blissful' to 'foolish.'" ["Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names"].
masc. proper name, from Phoenician/Hebrew Hiram, perhaps short for Ahiram, literally "brother of the lofty."
town and railroad stop on the Main Line outside Philadelphia, named 1869 by the Pennsylvania Railroad's executives, Welsh, literally "big hill;" it was the name of the estate near Dolgellau, Merionethshire, Wales, that belonged to Rowland Ellis, one of the original Quaker settlers in the region (1686). Before the change the village was known as Humphreysville, after another early Welsh settler. The women's college there was founded in 1885.
seventh or last day of the week, Old English sæterdæg, sæternesdæg, literally "day of the planet Saturn," from Sæternes (genitive of Sætern; see Saturn) + Old English dæg (see day). Partial loan-translation of Latin Saturni dies "Saturn's day" (compare Dutch Zaterdag, Old Frisian Saterdi, Middle Low German Satersdach; Irish dia Sathuirn, Welsh dydd Sadwrn). The Latin word itself is a loan-translation of Greek kronou hēmera, literally "the day of Cronus."
German Samstag (Old High German sambaztag) appears to be from a Greek *sambaton, a nasalized colloquial form of sabbaton "sabbath" (see Sabbath), which also yielded Old Church Slavonic sabota, Polish sobota, Russian subbota, Hungarian szombat, French samedi.
Unlike other English day names there was no Germanic substitution, perhaps because the northern European pantheon lacks a match to Roman Saturn. A homely ancient Nordic custom seems to be preserved in Old Norse day names laugardagr, Danish lørdag, Swedish lördag "Saturday," literally "bath day" (Old Norse laug "bath").
Saturday night has been figurative of revelry and especially "drunkenness and looseness in relations between the young men and young women" ["Clara Hopwood"] at least since 1847. Saturday-night special "cheap, low-caliber handgun" is American English, attested from 1976 (earlier Saturday-night pistol, 1929).
masc. proper name, biblical, from Hebrew Hizqiyya, literally "the Lord has strengthened," from hazaq "he was strong, he strengthened" + jah, short for yahweh.
1935, U.S. proprietary name (Eli Lilly & Co.), from Secon(dary) Al(lyl)or else from secobarbital (itself short for secondary barbital).
fem. proper name, originally short for Alexandra. Little used before c. 1920; a top-20 name for girls born in the U.S. 1938-1967.
