Merry Christmas!

TO EVERYONE: MERRY CHRISTMAS! Or for a bit of Old English, "Myrige Christmas!" (See Word Histories, below.)

MERRY CHRISTMAS! MERRY CHRISTMAS! MERRY CHRISTMAS! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

WORD HISTORIES:

Merry-This word goes back to Indo European "mreghuz," which meant "short." This gave its Old Germanic offspring  "murgjaz," which had the notion of "short (also of time), short duration." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "myrige," which meant "pleasant, delightful," and the connection to the base meaning "short duration" is that if something is pleasant, time passes quickly; that is, it is shortened. Old English also had a verb form, "myrgan," meaning "to be merry." Forms of the word seem to have died out in the other Germanic languages, the last main vestiges being Middle Dutch "mergelijc," which meant "joyful;" that is, "feeling merry" (see note below), and German had the verb forms tied to the original meaning, "mukeln" and "murken," which meant "to cut into pieces;" that is, "make shorter, shorten." In English, over time, the meaning "pleasant" evolved into "happy, jolly." NOTE: Middle Dutch was the collection of West Germanic dialects that later evolved into modern Dutch dating from 1150 A.D. until 1500 A.D.

 

Yule-"Yule" just love this one! (Okay, I couldn't resist that!) How this word originated is uncertain, although some speculate that it goes back to Indo European "qwelo," which had the notion of "turning, going around." In this case, Yule would have meant " turn of the year," as it originally meant the mid-winter period of the year, and it was not necessarily associated with any festival. Later it denoted a twelve day heathen festival in winter (in what is now the month of December), and when Christianity spread, the term began to be applied to Christmas. In Old English is was "geol/geola" (the "ge" combination was likely pronounced like or near to modern "y," as its German cousin's pronunciation for "je" combinations is like English "yea"), and this then became "yole," before the modern form. The various Germanic tribes that invaded Britain during the 400s (A.D.), collectively simplified as "Anglo-Saxons," came from what is now principally northern Germany and northeastern Holland (The Netherlands), including the North Sea islands of those regions, and they most certainly would have had much contact with their North Germanic cousins, the Norse, who had "jol." Whether this is how the West Germanic dialects acquired the word or whether they already had it, is uncertain, but the Anglo-Saxons seem to have taken it along with them to Britain. When Christianity arrived in England, the term "Christmas" began use as the word for that religion's holiday, but the strong influence of Old Norse on the people of northern and northeastern English saw "yule" not only survive, but transfer over as the name for the Christian holiday. German, a close relative of English, and another West Germanic language, has "Julfest," as a term for Christmas, but it isn't all that common, to my knowledge, although it may well have been centuries ago, and Germans certainly would understand the term today, just as English speakers understand "Yule." The Old English word most certainly would have been reinforced by the Danish invaders, who settled in much of northeastern and eastern England mainly during the 800s and 900s (A.D.) The word gradually became obsolete in English, as the word "Christmas" took over for the holiday festival, but it was revived in the 1800s in literary circles, and "Yule" has remained a secondary word for Christmas up to the present time.