You probably know that Santa Claus takes his name from a corruption of “Saint Nicholas” the 4th century figure who was fond of secretly handing out gifts and he obviously inspired the image of Father Christmas.

There are many other words that are associated with Christmas, what are their origins? From the gifts given to Jesus to some of the common Christmas traditions, here are the histories and etymologies of 5 words associated with Christmas.

1. Myrrh

Most people know that, according to the Bible, the magi brought myrrh as a gift to the infant Jesus, along with gold and frankincense.

Some people also know that myrrh (dried tree sap) was used as an embalming ointment or as incense for funerals and cremations (to mask the smells).

Few people know that, according to Ovid’s Metamorphoses, myrrh trees originated as a result of Myrrha’s lust for her father, Cinyras. With the connivance of her nursemaid, Myrrha repeatedly screwed her unsuspecting father.

When her father realized Myrrha’s identity and that he had been eating the punany of his daughter, he attempted to kill her but she escaped. The gods took pity on her and to release her from her shame, turned her into a myrrh tree.

2. Carol

The earliest references to Christmas carols date back to England.

Before carol we started associating carol to Christmas, it had many uses back then and they include; any joyous song, bands of musicians, the chorus of songbirds at dawn, or to a particular type of circular folk dance or piece of music written to accompany a ring-dance.

Whatever its earliest meaning might have been, carol was borrowed into English from French in the early Middle Ages and can probably be traced back to an ancient Latin or Greek word for a flute-player, choraules.

3. Frankincense

You’ll no doubt have heard the word, but you might not know the meaning—frankincense is actually a type of fragrant resin, obtained from the sap of the frankincense tree, which has long been used to make incense; the frank– of frankincense is an old French word essentially meaning “high quality.”

4. Gift

In Old English, a gift was specifically a wedding dowry, but by the early Middle Ages, its meaning had broadened to mean simply something given freely from one person to another.

It ultimately derives from some ancient Germanic word root meaning something like “give” or “bestow”—which is also the origin of the not-so-festive German word gift, meaning “poison.”

5. Yule

Yule derives from an Old Norse word, jól, that was once the name of a 12-day pagan festival leading up to what we now call Christmas Day.

This was borrowed into Old English as gol or geol as far back as the 8th century, and was originally used both as another name for December (which was called ǽrra geóla, or “before Yule”) and January (which was æftera geóla, or “after Yule”).

http://giftedgreen.com/2014/blog/2014/12/24/5-words-associated-with-christmas-and-their-interesting-origins/

Never knew these