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Word for Wednesday: Yule

Our Word for Wednesday theme for December is words you only hear at Christmas.  Over December, we’ve looked at the words carol, tidings and merry. Our final word for 2022 is yule. The words yule and yuletide are old-fashioned terms for Christmas and the festive season which takes place from December 24th to January 6th. The word yuletide dates to the fifteenth century while yule dates to the seventeenth century. Yule comes from the Old English ‘geol’ meaning ‘Chrismastide’, which in comes from an Old Norse name for the winter feast ‘jol’. Some sources propose that the Old Norse e...

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Word for Wednesday: Merry

Our Word for Wednesday theme for December is words you only hear at Christmas.  So far, we’ve looked at the words carol and tidings. Today’s word is merry.  The word merry is used to describe something that is cheerful, fun, and lively.  Like the word tidings in last week’s blog post, merry pops ups in Christmas songs and greetings but seems to hide away for the rest of the year. The word comes from the Old English ‘myrge’ meaning ‘pleasing’ or ‘sweet’. ‘Myrge’ comes from the Proto-Germanic ‘murgijaz’ which likely meant ‘short-lasting’ and comes from t...

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Word for Wednesday: Tidings

Our Word for Wednesday theme for December is words you only hear at Christmas.  Last week, we looked at the word carol and today’s word is tidings.  Tidings is another word for news and dates to around 1200.  The word appears in the song We Wish You A Merry Christmas:  We wish you a merry Christmas We wish you a merry Christmas We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year Good tidings we bring to you and your kin We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year When used in relation to Christmas, the term good tidings refers to the good news about the birth of Christ. The word comes from the Old English word ‘tidan’ meanin...

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