Mondayish

English

Etymology

Monday +‎ -ish

Adverb

Mondayish (not comparable)

1. (informal) On or around Monday.

   I hope to have the job finished by Mondayish.

Adjective

Mondayish (comparative more Mondayish, superlative most Mondayish)

1. (informal) feeling ill, especially used of clergymen having worked all day Sunday
   • 1798, Thomas De Witt Talmadge, Around the Tea-table:

     I wonder if on this Monday morning all the world is rested? No, no! Many of the best people of the world feel Mondayish. They overdid the Sunday and had no rest.

   • 1846, Annual Report of the American Tract Society, volumes 21-25, page 9:

     He loses the robustness and vigor of his physical frame, so that after preaching twice on the Sabbath, he feels Mondayish, and perhaps Tuesdayish.

2. (informal) hungover after a weekend of drinking (as a presumed contributing explanation for a clergyman feeling Mondayish)
   • 1839, James Miller, Alcohol; it's place and power:

     You all know that my work on the Sabbath day is very hard, and I used to think that I was entitled to something good after the labors of the day, and generally took a stiff glass of brandy and water. I did this, as I thought, to strengthen me, but I invariably passed a restless night, was always Mondayish, and felt unfit for anything; but since I have given up the brandy and water, I feel as well on Monday morning as I did on Saturday night.

   • c. 1862, “Total Abstinence for ministers”, in Journal of the American Temperance Union:

     As an ordinary drinker, he always used to find it necessary to have a glass of something as a night-cap, and then he always woke up in the morning hot and feverish, and Mondayish. That word Mondayish would be banished out of the language if they would only banish alcohol.

3. (informal) grumpy and disheartened on returning to work on a Monday after the weekend

   I feel a bit Mondayish this week at the start of a long project.

Derived terms

• Mondayishness

See also

• Mondayitis
• Monday-morning feeling