Christmas is right around the corner, and as keen readers will know we like a good holiday here at ELB. Christmas is a holiday with deep and diverse historical roots, and the language surrounding it reflects this: while the name very clearly evokes the Christian tradition now, in the English-speaking world we also have many words and traditions that predate Christianity.

There’s a hefty Christmas vocabulary list on this site I’d encourage you to check out, but this year I thought it’d be interesting to dive into the origins of some of the language, to help better explain some words, and make them more memorable!

Christmas Vocabulary Origins

I’ve chosen 12 words to look at in a little more detail, in reflection of the 12 Days of Christmas (which, incidentally, represent 12 feast/celebration days that start with Christmas Day).

1. Christmas

Christmas itself is a connection of ‘Christ’ and ‘mass’, the latter being the English word for the church’s celebration of the Eucharist. First recorded in 1038, it thus has religious origins in marking the celebration of Christ’s Mass.

2. Advent

Advent, the period leading up to Christmas, comes from the Latin adventus, a word used for an arrival or approach, hence, the approach of Christ (or more secularly now, the approach of Christmas itself!).

3. Carol

Carol has more pagan origins, in referring to a celebratory group song and dance performed by musicians or singers (likely sharing a root with the Latin that also gives us ‘chorus’). Originally these carols were used for various celebrations, but the Christian church adapted these folk traditions to have more specific religious meanings during the Medieval period.

4. Bauble

Baubles have a more general meaning as a playful trinket, probably taken from beaubelet, an old French word for a child’s toy (perhaps combining words for ‘pretty’ and ‘babe’). It was adopted in English during the Medieval period for something fancy but without value, later especially including batons used by court jesters, though it’s now become connected to Christmas ornaments.

5. Nativity

Nativity is another word with Latin origins, from a group of words that refer to birth or being born, nativus, nativitas, nativitatem. This comes from the same roots as ‘native’, referencing where you are born. It came to English via French, essentially referring to the birthday of Christ.

6. Yule

This comes from Old English, geol, geola, a cognate with Old Norse jol; it’s a very old one so the use and meaning has changed over time, but it referred at one point to a broader series of feasts over the winter months, and was (notice a pattern here!) taken by the Christian church in the Medieval period to specifically refer to the Christmas festival. Note that jol may also be connected to the origins of ‘jolly’!

7. Mincemeat (ala Mince Pies)

This is a fun one because we now mostly use mincemeat to refer to the rich fruity filling of mince pies (and associated sweets), which rarely contains actual meat. Meanwhile ‘mince’ minus the meat more specifically refers to actual minced meat (though you’ll notice we also use it without ‘meat’ when naming the pies themselves). The pie filling is thought to have Medieval origins, with crusaders discovering such spiced fillings in the Middle East, while the name refers to something cut up small (minced) and ‘meat’ as a general term for food, before it referred to actual flesh.

8. Turkey

Originally this referred to a type of guinea fowl that was imported to Europe via Turkey; when Europeans discovered wild turkeys in America during the 16th century they thought the birds were related, hence the name. They were wrong, but the name has stuck ever since.

9. Misteltoe

The origins of this one aren’t nearly as romantic as its current tradition as a sprig to kiss under: it comes from ‘mistel’ as the name for the particular shrub and ‘toe’ referring to a twig/branch of it. It’s not known for sure what mistel’s roots are, but it’s been suggested to come from Germanic words for ‘dung’ or ‘mash’.

10. Gingerbread

This has some fun folk etymology for the bread part, as you may be aware we use it to refer to richly spiced cakes and biscuits, but rarely anything to do with bread itself. ‘Ginger’ is a spice with old roots in words referring to ‘body’, because of its unusual shape, and Medieval English had a word for gingebred, a type of ginger paste used in cooking and medicine. This became adapted over time to gingerbread as it sounded similar to the more familiar word of ‘bread’!

11. Eggnog

A creamy, alcoholic drink, this is quite simple to unwrap, coming from American English in the 18th century – the drink typically features egg, and was a type of ‘nog’, a word referring to a strong ale (typically shared in a social setting). It’s mostly made with stronger spirits now, but eggnog could originally have been made with beer too.

12. Presents!

Finishing on the true meaning of Christmas, gifts – ahem, rather, giving… Present is a topical one for us because, fun, it does connect to our grammar, ‘present’ having roots in Old French and Latin meaning ‘in the presence of’, i.e. within the given moment. Present, hence, refers to a gift that is given when in someone’s presence, i.e. to mark a particular time of meeting, though it’s also connected to ‘presenting’, this being a gift put before someone.

That’s all for my list for now. I hope you found them interesting, though of course, as with anything related to traditions, it’s possible we’ve got some mixed wires along the way, and origins do sometimes take on stories of their own. There are countless books about Christmas you can dive into to learn more; one I recommend is Mark Forsyth’s A Christmas Cornucopia.

And Merry Christmas everyone!