How do you say "Merry Christmas"?
The Linguistic Origin of Spanish, French and English Seasonal Greetings
It is that time of the year when awkward and often well-meaning “Merry Christmases!” are exchanged and exulted at supermarket tills, office parties and household thresholds across the country.
Where does this seasonal expression come from?
English Language
The first utterance of Merry Christmas in the English language was found carefully scribed into a letter in the 16th century, from a Bishop to the first minister of the church. The popular Christmas carol “God rest ye Merry Gentleman,” also dates back to the 16th century, further proof that the phrase was starting to be used widely and was gaining popularity.
However, it was Charles Dickens who popularised the phrase on a large scale after his book A Christmas Carol was first published in 1843. Interestingly the first commercial Christmas card emblazoned with “Merry Christmas” was also first published at the time fuelling the popularity of the expression.
Spanish Language
Feliz Navidad
Feliz means happiness in Spanish and Navidad means nativity. As Spanish is a romance language it is part of the Latin language family. Navidad has its origins in navivitas meaning quite literally birth. Interestingly, in Spanish when the word Navidad is capitalised it specifically refers to the birth of Christ and the nativity story in the Bible.
French Language
Joyeux Noël
Thanks to our friends Merriam Webster we know that English speakers borrowed the word noel from French speakers. French is also a romance language with Latin roots and noël can be traced further back to natalis, another word for birth in Latin. Noël’s are referred to as Christmas carols sung during the festive season.
Noels were sung in Latin or French for centuries before English speakers started using the word to refer to Christmas carols in the 18th century. An early use of noel, spelt nowell in old English meaning "Christmas", can be found in the text of the late 14th-century Arthurian legend Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
