Washday is the one day in the week that a household sets aside for washing all the clothes. The word comes from a time before washing machines, when doing the laundry meant heating water, scrubbing by hand, and hanging everything out — a whole day of hard work, so families fixed it to the same day every week. In many English-speaking countries that day was traditionally Monday. Because machines have made washing something you can do any evening, the word now sounds a little old — you meet it in stories about the past, in memories of a grandmother, and in advertisements for soap powder that want that warm homey feeling. People still use it lightly today, though, for "the day I do my laundry", especially students in shared houses and anyone using a laundrette. Written as one word, and sometimes as two: "wash day".