by Roseanna White | Jan 8, 2018 | Word of the Week
Last week, my friend Rachel McMillan (of Toronto) asked on Facebook what the different American regions called a certain type of hat. You know, that basic knit hat for the winter. There, she said, they universally called it a toque. Other answers included “winter hat, knit cap, ski hat, beanie, tam, stocking hat…” The list went on and on.
But given that I’m currently knitting one for my husband (the pattern is called, “A Very Plain Hat,” LOL), I was thinking of it again and thought it would be fun to feature.
In my area, I grew up hearing them called toboggans. Like the sled. Upon looking it up, I learned that the word dates from 1829, meaning a flat-bottomed sled. Around 100 years later, in the late 1920s, it began being applied (regionally in America) to the knit hats one wore when tobogganing. (I guess that region includes my own…)
Toque, coming from French, is not surprisingly common in Canada. As a word for “a round hat,” it dates to the 1500s. It comes from the Spanish word for “a woman’s headdress,” which may have in turn come from the Arabic word for “shawl.”
Beanie dates from the 1940s and might be the funniest of the words–it’s from the slang sense of bean, meaning “head.” (For some reason, I always think of a beanie as one of the bowl-shaped hats with a little propeller on top. I wonder what TV show I have to thank for that? LOL)
Tam is short for tam-o’-shanter, a type of hat from the 1840s used by Scottish plowmen. The name comes from the hero of Robert Burns poem (Tom of Shanter) of the same name, published in 1790. This type of woolen hat became fashionable for women in the 1880s as well.
So there we go. Whatever we call it, I know many of them have been worn during this awful arctic blast! If you’re anything like me, you’re pretty excited to see warmer temps in this week’s forecast!
by Roseanna White | Dec 18, 2017 | Word of the Week
Did you know that yule and jolly are from the same root? According to some sources, both come from the Old Norse jol (that J would be pronounced like a Y–see my word of the week on the letter J), which was borrowed into Old French as well, as jolif, which originally meant “festive.” Modern French now has joli, which means “pretty, nice.” And English, of course, has jolly.
But what about this whole “yuletide” idea, meaning Christmas? The yule log? Well, way back in the days of Old English, that Old Norse jol was a heathen feast. As Christianity came in and took over, they applied the English cognate geol to the coordinating Christian festival–Christmas. Old English, you see, already had the word giuli (which sounded very similar)–the Anglo-Saxon name for the winter season (December and January). It wasn’t a specific festival, but rather a two-month stretch in which many feasts occurred. But upon conversion to Christianity, the meaning of giuli narrowed to the twelve day feast of the Nativity (beginning Dec 25). By the 11th century, Christmas became the more popular word in most of England, except the northeast.
How did it come back, then? Well, there had always been a few holdouts–evidenced by yule log being recorded in the 1600s. But we’re mostly familiar with it today because in the 19th century, writers began using it as a nostalgic way to refer to “the Christmas of ‘Merrie England.'”
Today we’re exactly a week from the start of the official Yuletide season. I hope you and yours are having a jolly time!
by Roseanna White | Dec 11, 2017 | Holidays, Word of the Week
Last weekend, my church went to a nursing home (where we visit once a month) and sang carols with the residents. At which point, I realized that I’d never paused to look up the origin of the word!
Carol dates from around 1300, meaning, “a joyful song.” It came into being as a noun and a verb at around the same time, the verb meaning “to dance in a ring.” Etymologists aren’t entirely sure where the word comes from–the English is undoubtedly from the Old French carole, but before that, their best guess is that it’s from the Medieval Latin charaula (a dance to the flute), which is in turn from the Greek khoraules (flute player).
By the end of the 1300s, it was being used to mean “to sing with Joy or festivity” and was used particularly of joyful Christmas hymns by about 1500 onward.
It took a while, however, for the word to take on the meaning of “go around from place to place and sing Christmas carols.” That first appeared in 1879, though it was said at the time to be a revival of an old English custom.
Do you like to go caroling? Is it a traditional in your family or church?
by Roseanna White | Dec 4, 2017 | Holidays, Word of the Week
We’ve all heard “wassailing” in some of the old Christmas songs. And you probably have an awareness (vague or otherwise) of wassail being a drink. But if you’re anything like me (before I had to research it for a book a few years ago), that’s the extent of your knowledge. 😉 Which of course makes it a perfect Word of the Week during this Advent season!
Wassail is from the Old Norse ves heill, which literally means “be healthy.” It was first a salutation and then became a sort of drinking salute among the Danes in England, which then spread to the natives. But 1300, it wasn’t only something one said while lifting a glass, but also what was in the glass–particularly spiced ale that was served on Christmas Eve.
By 1600, it had taken on a bit of a “carousing” meaning, which then extended by 1742 to the practice of going house to house on Christmas Eve, caroling and offering the traditional spiced drink. In Colonial America, wassail was traditionally sold by the poor to the rich–an excuse for them to come in and see how the other half lived, and a way for the rich to give alms to the poor.
So this season, if you lift you glass in salute (whatever might be in it), try saying “Wassail!” and see if anyone understands, LOL.
by Roseanna White | Nov 27, 2017 | Holidays, Word of the Week
This weekend, advent begins. And so, it seemed the perfect word to study a bit this week. =) And then we’ll focus on holiday-themed words throughout our December Mondays!
Advent means, of course, “coming.” It’s from the Latin adventus, and specifically in Church Latin refers to “the coming of the Savior.” Since the days of Old English, it’s been the word used for the season leading up to Christmas. But it’s certainly worth noting that it doesn’t just mean that coming of the Savior–it’s also the word traditionally used when looking forward to when Jesus returns.
I love keeping that in mind each Advent season. That we’re not only looking backward, to when our Lord became man, but also looking forward, to when He’ll return for His church.
Final note on the word–these days it’s also used to mean any “important arrival,” but that generalization wasn’t accepted until the 1740s. Before that, it was exclusively used in the sacred sense in English.
by Roseanna White | Nov 13, 2017 | Word of the Week
These days, when people say science, they have a particular thing in mind, right? Chemistry, biology, anatomy, physics, etc. But did you know that science used to be a far more general term?
The word dates from the 14th century, from the French word of the exact same spelling, and it meant broadly “what is known; knowledge acquired by study; information.” The French, in turn, came from the Latin scientia, which means “a knowing, knowledge, expertness.” This most likely came from scire, which means “to divide; differentiate.”
Back in the 1300s, this word was used for general book-learning. By the end of the century, it was that learning especially gained by observation. The modern, restricted sense of science didn’t come along until the mid 1700s and was commonly called philosophy as well.
Don’t forget that tonight I’ll be chatting on Facebook Live about the inspiration and behind-the-scenes of Giver of Wonders! Hope to see you all there at 7 p.m. Eastern. =)
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.