why is saturday night called "saturday night" and not saturnight?

Answer 1

because its the night of saturday and not the night of saturn!!!

Answer 2

It just hasn't happened that way. A very common word in English is "fortnight", a contraction of "fourteen nights" or two weeks. It is hardly heard in the USA. Another form "sennight" existed, meaning a week, but that is only used these days in a few local English dialects and has all but disappeared.

The importance of Saturday night as a special time of the week is a 20th century phenomenon. There is a contraction that is often heard and that is "satdinight" but it is not "saturnight".

Answer 3

If this were Sunday, you might also say "yesternight" to refer to Saturday night, as my 3yr -old daughter did, bless her little heart! Of course, she wanted to talk about an event rather than a point in time. I expect that this is usually the case and we tend to divide our time by weeks and days and so on. The days of the week have names and we ad "night", or "evening" or what-have-you to more closely refer to the time when a particular event occured. Besides, if you allowed "Saturnight", you'd also have to allow "Monnight" (sp?), "Tuesnight", "Wednesnight" ("Wednight"), on so on. And why stop there? Why not divide a 24 hour period into even finer demarcations such as "Saturnoon", "Saturmidnight", "Saturweehoursofthenight"?

Ultimately, I think it's easier to modify an existing named point in time with a separate word like "night", rather than assign a sepatate name to each and every part of that 24hour period.

Answer 4

Bravo! You've coined a new word. Sign me up for the committee to get it into our Funk And Wagnall's.

Answer 5

Sheesh, the things people come up with when they are high...