This French term is one of an array of terms in romance languages derived from Latin na\u0304ta\u0304lis<\/em>, meaning ‘birthday [of Christ]’. This also provides us with Portugues Natal<\/em>, Catalan Nadal<\/em> and Italian\u00a0Natale<\/em>. Spanish meanwhile uses\u00a0Navidad<\/em>, which comes from a related Latin term na\u0304ti\u0304vita\u0304s<\/em>. Another Latin term na\u0304ta\u0304li\u0304cia<\/em> ‘birthday feast’ was an early borrowing into the Celtic languages, giving for example Welsh\u00a0Nadolig<\/em> and Gaelic Nollaig<\/em>, while Albanian borrowed a Latin phrase Christi\u0304 na\u0304ta\u0304le<\/em>, which with Albanian’s complicated history ended up as Ke\u0308rshe\u0308ndella<\/em>. Greek Khristougenna<\/em>\u00a0also means ‘Christ’s birth’; Church Slavonic likewise boasted a form Rozhdestvo<\/em> (fully Rozhdestvo Khristovo<\/em>), again meaning ‘birth [of Christ]’, which is now the Russian form as well, while Polish combines a derivative of that same root with the Slavic\u00a0Bog<\/em> ‘God’ to give Bo\u017ce Narodzenie<\/em> ‘birth of God\u02c8.<\/p>\n A different Latin term, calendae,\u00a0<\/em>originally meaning ‘Kalend (the first day of the month)’, which also gives us English\u00a0calendar,<\/em> also ended up being borrowed into Proto-Slavic as *k<\/em>ol\u0119da, with<\/em> many Slavic languages using this as an alternative term for ‘Christmas’ (somewhat akin to referring to Christmas as Yule<\/em> in English, on which more later); in Bulgarian Koleda<\/em> is the primary term, and Lithuanian also refers to the festival as K<\/em>al\u0117dos<\/em>, borrowing from the Slavic (Latvian Ziemassve\u0304tki<\/em> simply means ‘winter holidays’). Furthermore, a Polish k<\/em>ol\u0119da<\/em> and a Russian kolyadka<\/em> are both Christmas carols, as is a colind\u0103<\/em> in Romanian.<\/p>\n A third term that English has is Yule<\/em>. This is a Germanic term, likely referring to festivities in general, but now the word for Christmas in modern Scandinavian languages, e.g. Danish\/Swedish\/Norwegian J<\/em>ul<\/em> and Icealandic J\u00f3l<\/em>. This word also spread to other languages in Scandinavia, hence Finnish Joulu<\/em> (If you visit actual Lappland ‘Father Christmas’ will be referred to Joulupukki<\/em> ‘Christmas Buck’), alongside the more archaic juhla<\/em>, a general word for ‘party, celebration’, while (Northern) S\u00e1mi has Juovllat<\/em> from the same source. German Weihnachten<\/em>, meanwhile, originally meant ‘Holy Nights’; Czech V\u00e1noce<\/em>\/Slovak Vianoce are<\/em> borrowed from the German, replacing Germanic Nacht<\/em> with Slavic noc<\/em> for ‘night’.<\/p>\n Perhaps the most interesting pair of terms for Christmas are Romanian Cr\u0103ciun<\/em> and Hungarian Kar\u00e1csony<\/em>. These terms are likely related, but beyond that the etymology is disputed. Romanians tend to claim that it is Latin in origin, typically crea\u0304tio\u0304nem<\/em> ‘creation’, though there are other possibilities such as cala\u0304tio\u0304nem<\/em> ‘calling’ and incarnatio\u0304nem<\/em> ‘incarnation’ (this latter one is perhaps the best semantic match; theologically Christmas is the feast of the incarnation ‘making flesh’ of God). This is plausible, but Slavicists propose a different etymology. Specifically, they contend that this form is a borrowing from a Slavic root *korc\u030citi<\/em> meaning something like ‘step forth’, from which is derived a form Krac\u030cun<\/em> meaning ‘winter solstice’ (the metaphor being the sun ‘stepping forth’ after the shortest day of the year) in certain Bulgarian varieties and in Slovak, and with an attestation as Koroc\u030cun<\/em> in some Novgorodian manuscripts. I personally would lean towards the former, since the Slavic forms could easily be loans from the Romanian (we noted already the borrowing of calendae<\/em> from Latin) and the semantic match seems something of a stretch to derive ‘winter solstice’, but we will likely never be sure.<\/p>\n However you celebrate (if you do), we at SMG wish you Joyeux Noe\u0308l, Frohe Weinachten, Feliz Navidad, God Jul, s Rozhdestvom<\/em>, and of course Merry Christmas<\/em>.<\/p>\n It might have escaped your notice, but Christmas is coming! While the exact date of the birth of Jesus Christ is subject to some debate, the overall consensus of the early church settled upon sometime in winter as the time to hold the feast. However, Christian denominations still disagree on the exact date of the celebration; in the West Christians celebrate on the (Gregorian) 25th December, but some Orthodox churches (notably the Russians) retain the Julian Calendar, so their liturgical…<\/p>\n![\"Merry](\"https:\/\/morph.surrey.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/abstract-4623510_1280-1024x1024.png\")