Word Play - The vocabulary of Christmas

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, December 17th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. Time now for Word Play. This month, George Grant considers—what else?—the vocabulary of Christmas.

GEORGE GRANT, COMMENTATOR: G.K. Chesterton once asserted, “The great majority of people go on observing forms that cannot be explained; they keep Christmas Day with Christmas gifts and Christmas benedictions; they will continue to do it; and someday suddenly they wake up and discover why.” Someday, they may well discover that even the vocabulary of “Christmas” means something! And that is saying a lot: the Christmas vocabulary is as sparkling, as brilliant, as gaudy, as colorful, and as wildly diverse as the most extravagant of Christmas decorations.

Think of all the ways we say Merry Christmas: Blessed Yuletide, Happy Holidays, Joyeux Noël, Feliz Navidad, Seasons Greetings, Joy to the World, Glad Tidings of Comfort and Joy, Gloria in Excelsis Deo! Yuletide and Holidays both come from the old Anglo Saxon. Joyeux Noël is French and Feliz Navidad is Spanish. Joy comes from the old Norman, which in turn came from Latin. Tidings is derived from the old Norse. And Gloria in Excelsis Deo is Latin. All have passed into the English melting pot of our Christmas parlance. And all declare the same message: Good news! Be ye glad! Take heart! On this, the grandest of all festivals, the promise is fulfilled: He has come to make His blessings flow as far as the curse is found.

But of course, there is an entire arsenal of words that we use to supply our holiday vocabulary: there is the Dutch mistletoe and the Greek carols, the Latin advent and the Norman tinsel. Eggnog is a hybridized word from Middle English describing two of the most distinctive ingredients of this uniquely Christmas grog. Poinsettia is a modern Latinized neologism named for Joel Roberts Poinsett, a 19th century American botanist, physician and the first United States Ambassador to Mexico.

Nativity is an Early English term taken from Old French and derived from Late Latin. Santa Claus is from the dialectal Middle Dutch for Saint Nicholas. Magi is from the ancient Persian describing the mystery men of Matthew 2—and the old Armenian tradition of Caspar, Balthazar, and Melchior. You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen. And of course, you recall the most famous of all: Rudolph with his nose so bright.

The historian Christopher Dawson declared, “Christmas is the hinge upon which all human history turns.” And, Alexander McLaren asserted, “Christmas is the day that holds every other day together.” No wonder then we find it necessary to employ a special vocabulary, literally drawn from the ends of the earth, to adorn this most special of occasions.

So, although it’s been said many times, many ways, Merry Christmas to you.

I’m George Grant.

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