Can anyone find a reference to the etymology of using the abbreviation
"R" for Thursday?

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Clarification of Question by quartofbeer-ga on 21 Nov 2003 16:52 PST

Interesting comment on the dipthong thing, apteryx.  I heard somewhere
in ancient Nordic (ie runic) that the symbol "Y" was used to designate
"Th" (as in, "Ye Old Curiosity Shop")... I wonder if it wouldnt be
more appropriate to use "Y" as the single letter representation of
"Thursday" since you could view the dipthong as a single sound. :)

Some of the websites suggest simply that we use "R" for Thursday
because "T" is already taken by Tuesday.  For example on this biology
website :

"I'm guessing that they use "K" for Cretaceous because "C" fro
Cmabrian is already used, sort of why we use "R" for Thursday."

http://www.clt.astate.edu/dgilmore/Biological%20Science/evolution.htm

Let you know if I find anything else.

Bowler-ga

"But we used to use R for Thursday since T was already taken by Tuesday."

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%22use+r+for+thursday%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=39C653E8.CCB10649%40consumer.org&rnum=1

And H, U, and R are really the only choices.  R certainly seems the
likeliest of that lot, if a unique single-letter code is absolutely
needed.

Apteryx

apteryx,
I have to disagree with you.  H would seem a much more likely choice. 
Not only is it the second letterof the word, rather than the fourth,
but it does not occur in any other names of the days of the week.  R
is found in both Friday and Saturday.  And Saturday could also
potentially use a different letter than the one it starts with.  So
why would R be more likely to represent Thursday than Saturday?

Well, ac67, it seemed so to me.  I guess it didn't seem so to you.  We
don't have to agree.

Because the H isn't heard at all and is only present as part of a
diphthong, I considered it a pretty low-profile letter in this word. 
To me (though maybe not to you), the best solution would be to use a
single character for the Th, but the thorn is not in common use in
English any more.  You're right, we'd still need to solve the
Saturday/Sunday problem in any case.

Personally I try not to get myself into situations where I have to
designate the days of the week by a single letter, and when I do, I
just reuse the T, figuring that I will probably remember (and most
people can shrewdly guess) which is to the west and which is to the
east of Wednesday.

Apteryx

This is curious: I've now found references to the letter "N" being
used to denote Sunday. But I suppose that's another mystery
altogether, isn't it?

Regards;
tutuzdad-ga

SEARCH FOR:
"N means Sunday"
"N indicates Sunday"
Symbols "day pattern"

Likewise I have also found where the letter "U" has been used to indicate Sunday.

It seems that the commonality here is academic. College schedules
routinely list classes for each day of the week. A class held on
Monday, Wednesday and Friday would bear the seemingly universal code
MWF, while classes held on Tuesday and Thursday are listed as TR (the
"R" used to merely to seperate the two). Since classes aren't normally
held on Saturday or Sunday the "SN" isn't routinely necessary, but I
found that it is used in the same fashion in some instances.

tutuzdad-ga

Don't forget CYMK !   "K" is the designated letter for "black" in CYMK
(Cyan, Yellow, Magenta, Black) in printing, so as not to be confused
with "Blue"