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| From: https://keepcalms.com/p/keep-calm-and-say-happy-chrimbo/ |
Long time not see (once again)!
Christmas hols are finally here and I find some time to reprise my writing! First of all, Merry Christmas for everyone: I hope that all of you have got to celebrate it with your loved ones, taking all the necessary precautions.
Today, I'll be writing a short post about the word Christmas and its variants. I just happen to love the word and it has a good story behind it!
Let's begin:
1) From a morphological point of view, the word 'Christmas' comes from the words 'Christ' and the Old English word for 'mass' (church service). It is a singular word (even though it finishes in -s). This is seen in expressions such as 'Christmas IS fun'. So, unlike in Spanish, the word 'Christmas' is English is normally preceeded by an indefinite article and it is countable: 'I wish you a merry Christmas'. It has a plural: 'Christmases', which is not frequently used.
Moreover, the word 'Christmas' has an adjective that can be spelt in two different ways: 'Christmasy' and 'Christmassy'.
2) From a grammatical point of view, remember that the Christmas season is preceeded by the preposition 'at': 'I always eat a lot at Christmas'. However, each individual day within the Christmas season is preceeded by the preposition 'on': 'I love receiving my presents ON Christmas Day.
3) From a phonetical perspective, it's interesting to know that the word 'Christ' has a diphthong: /kraɪst/, which is lost in the word 'Christmas', whose 't' is silent: /ˈkrɪsməs/
4) Christmas has a wide-known abbreviation: 'Xmas'. This abbreviation has nothing to do with letter 'x' but with letter 'chi' (a Greek letter similar to Spanish 'j'). There are some religious people against this abbreviation as it has elided the word 'Christ' and all its meaning and this is why some people just tend to use the abbreviation to refer to the commercial side of Christmas. In a nutshell:
- Christmas: Full word that keeps the religious origin of the festivity.
- Xmas: Abbreviated word that doesn't have much of the religious origin but it is a good alternative for the sake of the linguistic economy, used to refer to the non-secular side of Christmas: presents, consumerism, snow...
In any case, the abbreaviation is out and about and has come to stay...
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| From: https://www.vectorstock.com/royalty-free-vector/christmas-background-merry-xmas-sale-holiday-web-vector-27080443 |
5) Christmas has two British hypocorisms (nicknames that shows affection or closeness): 'Chrimbo' (or 'Crimbo') and 'Crimble'. Apparently, 'Crimble' appeared first and it was John Lennon made the word 'Chrimbo' popular.
So, I hope you have learnt some quirks about the word Christmas. I hope you enjoy this wonderful festivity! Happy Chrimbo!
See you around
