section_path: Etymology
section_name: Etymology
paragraph_text: Etymology
  
  The term Good Friday comes from the sense ' pious, holy' of the word good. Less common examples of expressions based on this obsolete sense of good include 'the good book" for the Bible, 'good tide' for Christmas or Shrovetide, and Good Wednesday for the Wednesday in Holy Week. With regard to the usual sense of the word good, "Christians believe that Jesus's death on the cross was the ultimate sacrifice for humanity's sins, saving mankind from death."
  
  A common folk etymology analyses Good Friday incorrectly as a corruption of God Friday, of a type similar to the (linguistically correct) derivation of goodbye from a contraction of 'God be with ye'. In Old English, the day was called Long Friday (langa frigedæg)—referring to the lengthy observances of fasting and religious services, making it a day of extended devotion—and equivalents of this term are still used in Scandinavian languages and Finnish.
  
  The term Good Friday comes from the sense ' pious, holy' of the word good. Less common examples of expressions based on this obsolete sense of good include 'the good book" for the Bible, 'good tide' for Christmas or Shrovetide, and Good Wednesday for the Wednesday in Holy Week. With regard to the usual sense of the word good, "Christians believe that Jesus's death on the cross was the ultimate sacrifice for humanity's sins, saving mankind from death."
  
  A common folk etymology analyses Good Friday incorrectly as a corruption of God Friday, of a type similar to the (linguistically correct) derivation of goodbye from a contraction of 'God be with ye'. In Old English, the day was called Long Friday (langa frigedæg)—referring to the lengthy observances of fasting and religious services, making it a day of extended devotion—and equivalents of this term are still used in Scandinavian languages and Finnish.