{"id":7214,"date":"2025-12-30T20:30:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T20:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/?p=7214"},"modified":"2025-12-30T20:33:48","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T20:33:48","slug":"word-of-the-day-yule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/2025\/12\/30\/word-of-the-day-yule\/","title":{"rendered":"Word of the Day: Yule"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today\u2019s word of the day, thanks to the season, is yule<\/em>. Pronounced \/ yul \/, this noun means \u201cChristmas, or the Christmas season\u201d or \u201can ancient Germanic pagan holiday centering around the winter solstice, now sometimes celebrated by neopagans\u201d (https:\/\/www.dictionary.com\/browse\/yule<\/a>). Merriam-Webster says, \u201cthe feast of the nativity of Jesus Christ\u201d (https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/yule<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The word appears in the language in its more-or-less current form as \u201cMiddle English Yol<\/em>, from Old English geol<\/em>, geola<\/em> \u2018Christmas Day, Christmastide,\u2019 which is cognate with Old Norse jol<\/em> (plural), the name of a heathen feast, later absorbed into Christianity. The Germanic word is of unknown origin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Old English (Anglian) cognate giuli<\/em> was the name for a two-month midwinter season corresponding to Roman December and January, a time of important feasts but not itself a festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn Christian England the word narrowed to mean \u2018the 12-day feast of the Nativity\u2019 (which began Dec. 25). But by 11c. it was replaced by Christmas<\/strong><\/a><\/em>, except in the northeast (areas of Danish settlement), where yule<\/em> remained the usual word. Yule<\/em> returned to literary use among 19c. writers with a sense of \u2018the Christmas of \u201cMerrie England.\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYule log<\/em> and yule block<\/em> both are from mid-17c. According to some sources, Old Norse jol<\/em> was borrowed into Old French as jolif<\/em>, hence Modern French joli<\/em> \u2018pretty, nice,\u2019 originally \u2018festive\u2019 (see jolly<\/strong><\/a>)\u201d (https:\/\/www.etymonline.com\/search?q=yule<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One more thing: the tide<\/em> of \u201cChristmastide\u201d or \u201cyuletide\u201d has nothing to do with the sea or the moon. It too appears as \u201cMiddle English tide<\/em> \u2018time, season; recurring interval, space of time,\u2019 especially as regards a particular purpose or natural process, from Old English t\u012bd<\/em> \u2018point or portion of time, due time, period, season; feast-day, canonical hour,\u2019 from Proto-Germanic *t\u012bdi-<\/em> \u2018division of time\u2019 (source also of Old Saxon tid<\/em>, Dutch tijd<\/em>, Old High German zi<\/em>t, German Zeit<\/em> \u2018time\u2019), according to Watkins from PIE *di-ti-<\/em> \u2018division, division of time,\u2019 suffixed form of root *da-<\/strong><\/a> \u2018to divide.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe \u2018time\u2019 senses in English mostly are archaic. Compare tidings<\/em>, betide<\/em>, tidy<\/em> (adj.), also Middle English anytide<\/em> \u2018any time,\u2019 tideful<\/em> \u2018seasonable, opportune, timely, fitting\u2019 (c. 1300). Old English uhtan-tid<\/em> was early morning, the period before dawn (with uhte<\/em> \u2018daybreak\u2019); tide-song<\/em> was the divine service peculiar to a canonical hour\u201d (https:\/\/www.etymonline.com\/search?q=tide<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s an old expression, \u201cTime and tide wait for no man,\u201d that seems to confuse some people. It also has nothing to do with the sea or with the moon. But it is somewhat redundant, with tide<\/em> meaning, perhaps, \u201cdivisions of time\u201d if not just time<\/em>. Redundancy in old expressions is not uncommon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s New Year\u2019s Eve, December 31. I\u2019m not one to celebrate New Year’s Eve, really, but this year might be different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, why don\u2019t I celebrate New Year’s Eve? People do several things for this holiday: they do fireworks, they make resolutions, and they drink champagne. I don\u2019t really care about fireworks that much after seeing them for almost 70 years. The main thing that resolutions do is get broken. And while I can drink champagne, I wouldn\u2019t call it my favorite. I do like kissing my wife at the stroke of midnight, though that will not be happening this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reason that won\u2019t be happening this year is that I\u2019m in Australia. I\u2019m in Adelaide for a wedding, but later we\u2019ll be travelling to Sydney, where New Year\u2019s Eve is apparently, from what I\u2019ve read, a really big thing. Australian Vibes (https:\/\/ausvibes.com.au\/how-australians-celebrate-new-year-traditions-events-summer-lifestyle\/<\/a>) says that \u201cSydney\u2019s New Year\u2019s Eve celebration is often described as one of the best in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat makes Sydney special:
Fireworks over Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early evening fireworks for families<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harbour cruises and ticketed events<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Global media coverage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You might wonder how that is different from New York City, which also features global media coverage. Well, according to Australian Vibes, one of the big differences is that it\u2019s summertime down under, so New Year\u2019s Eve \u201cis deeply connected to beach culture, outdoor living, and community events\u201d (ibid.). The holiday includes school being out for the summer, a time for families to go on vacation and travel, and warmth. \u201cSummer in Australia is festival season, and New Year often coincides with: Outdoor music festivals; Beachside concerts; Food and wine events; Cultural celebrations\u201d (ibid.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is even a website devoted exclusively to the Sydney New Year\u2019s Eve: \u201cA New Year’s Eve Like Nowhere Else\u201d (https:\/\/www.sydneynewyearseve.com\/<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What am I doing New Year\u2019s, New Year\u2019s Eve? Well, I don\u2019t know yet, but I\u2019ll be down under for the rest of the Yule tide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s image is a file photo from Travel and Leisure<\/em> of Sydney harbor on New Year\u2019s Eve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s word of the day, thanks to the season, is yule. Pronounced \/ yul \/, this noun means \u201cChristmas, or the Christmas season\u201d or \u201can ancient Germanic pagan holiday centering […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7215,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[238,395,284,921,920],"class_list":["post-7214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-word-of-the-day","tag-dictionary","tag-etymology","tag-linguistics","tag-sydney-australia","tag-yule","clearfix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7214"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7216,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7214\/revisions\/7216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}