Christmas Word Origin Meaning

Etymology christmas is a shortened form of christ s mass the word is recorded as crīstesmæsse in 1038 and cristes messe in 1131.

Christmas word origin meaning. Christmas n church festival observed annually in memory of the birth of christ late old english cristes mæsse from christ and retaining the original vowel sound mass n 2. The form christenmas was also. Christmas is the annual christian festival celebrating christ s birth held on december 25. It comes from a greek word that means anointed one the hebrew word is messiah a term that old testament prophets used to describe the.

The earlier term yule may have derived from the germanic jōl or the anglo saxon geōl which referred to the feast of the winter solstice the corresponding terms in other languages navidad in spanish natale in italian noël in french all. Christmas definition is a christian feast on december 25 or among some eastern orthodox christians on january 7 that commemorates the birth of christ and is usually observed as a legal holiday. As a verb to celebrate christmas from 1590s. Of course we are not talking about the physical mass of christ s body.

Christmas christian festival celebrating the birth of jesus the english term christmas mass on christ s day is of fairly recent origin. How to use christmas in a sentence. Xmas also x mas is a common abbreviation of the word christmas it is sometimes pronounced ˈ ɛ k s m ə s but xmas and variants such as xtemass originated as handwriting abbreviations for the typical pronunciation ˈ k r ɪ s m ə s the x comes from the greek letter chi which is the first letter of the greek word christós greek. And mæsse is from latin missa the celebration of the eucharist.

The word christmas comes from middle english cristemasse which in turn comes from old english cristes messe literally meaning christ s mass. The word christmas has its origin from the old english term cristes maesse meaning christ s mass 1 though the word christ is commonly used as jesus name it is actually a title. Crīst genitive crīstes is from greek khrīstos χριστός a translation of hebrew māšîaḥ מ ש יח messiah meaning anointed. χριστός which became christ in english.

Learn all about the history and meaning of christmas it s origins both christian and pagan celebrations. The loss of the final n in the modern form mistletoe is from confusion with another tān the plural of toe the exact origin of mistel is as equivocal as the origin of the kissing tradition associated with mistletoe. Written as one word from mid 14c.