Some words about Christmas

I read a tweet a few weeks ago from @guardianstyle that gave a brief explanation of the origin of the word “Xmas”.  The answer got me thinking about Christmas words and their origins.  I wonder how many other people will, like me, learn something surprising today. 

Christmas 

The word “Christmas” is a combination of “Christ” and “mass”.  “Christ”, meaning “anointed one” or “messiah”, is commonly used to refer to Jesus, believed by Christians to be the prophesied messiah.  In the context of Christmas, this is the intended meaning.  “Mass” is a word coined by the Roman Catholic church, and means the celebration of the Eucharist (the holy communion).  It is a ritual of thanksgiving in commemoration of Jesus’ death.  The word itself has origins in the Middle English word “masse”, from Old English “mæsse”, which is ultimately from Latin “mittere” – “to send away”; it is perhaps derived from the concluding dismissal in the Roman Mass, “Ite, missa est”, - “Go, it is the dismissal” or "Go, (the prayer) has been sent".

Interestingly, then, the origin of the word “Christmas” seems to relate more to the death of Jesus than his birth.

Xmas 

It is a common view that “Xmas” is a modern contraction of “Christmas” and is therefore somehow informal and improper.  In fact, “Xmas” can be found as far back as the 1750s; for example, it appears in Bernard Ward's History of St. Edmund's College, Old Hall (originally published circa 1755).  So where does it come from?

 

The letter ‘X’ or ‘Xp’ / ‘XP’ have often been used to represent “Christ”, ‘X’ being the Greek letter chi and ‘P’ being the Greek letter rho, and their being the first two letters of Χριστός, Greek for “Christ”.  Earlier versions of “Xmas” are "X'temmas" (around 1551) and "Xp̄es mæsse" (around 1100).

So, contrary to popular belief, “Xmas” is not a sign of illiteracy but of an understanding of Greek!

 Yule

The early Anglo-Saxons had a name for the winter period when many important feasts took place.  The name for it was “geol” / “geola” in Old English; this later became “yule”.  Again Christianity had an effect, in that the Yule period was reduced to a 12-day period starting on the 25^th of December.  Once the name “Christmas” was adopted for this Christian festival, the name “Yule” died out somewhat but is still used as a synonym of Christmas.

Carol

A carol is a Christmas song.  The word originates from Latin and Greek words for the flute player who accompanies choral dances (”choraúlēs”).  It could also be related to the idea of a circle, perhaps a circle dance, from the Old French “carole” (a kind of dance), or middle English “carole” (ring, circle), or Latin “corolla” (garland).

Noel

This is a variant of the Old French “naël”, which originated from the Latin “natalis dies”, meaning “birthday”.  It came into English in the 14^th century, and really comes directly from the French, being spelt “Noël”, although it can also be spelt “Nowell” and “Noel”.

I wish everyone a very happy and restful festive season – whatever you call it!

Sources: www.dictionary.com

http://en.wikipedia.org

The Cultural Supermarket

When you are used to the way products are organised and displayed on the shelves of supermarkets you don’t really think or expect that things might be different in a neighbour country; but I can assure you that they are; or some of them at least.

Let’s take a simple example (some supermarkets might do things differently from what I am about to describe but this is what I have noticed): in many supermarkets in France, the fresh fruit and vegetables section is located at the centre of the supermarket whereas in most British supermarkets I have been to (with the exception of the few Tesco I have “visited” and which were a bit more like French supermarkets), fresh fruit and vegetables are the first thing you see when you get in.

These aren’t the only items that you can find in a different part of the supermarket. At least fruit and vegetables belong to a whole (sometimes rather big) section that you can’t really miss. Now think about a single, “rare” item.

I was young and naïve at the time. I thought that nothing could be worse than choosing what butter brand I was going to buy. Well, on another day when I was craving American-style pancakes, I undertook a trip to the supermarket in a quest for maple syrup.

In my French brain, finding maple syrup is easy: it is in the same aisle as honey, chocolate spread and jam, and/or in the “food of the world” section of the supermarket. In addition to that, since my first grocery shopping trip I had got a bit more used to British supermarkets. So what could possibly go wrong? However, that day proved that I still had loads to learn about the British mind and the organisation of supermarket shelves. In short, it took me 20 minutes to do my normal shopping and another 30 minutes to find the maple syrup, which was with the tinned fruits and custard (and the only reason why I eventually found it is because after swallowing my pride and accepting defeat, I asked a shop assistant). I wonder how I didn’t think of it myself?! Because I’m French, pardi! and my mindset is different, I suppose.

That day, besides learning where to find maple syrup and, incidentally, to put my pride aside and ask for help in a shop, I learnt that cultural differences aren’t only expressed through languages and the way people speak, they don’t show only through the music we listen to and the way we dress, they also affect people’s logic and therefore the way things are organised and displayed in shops.

Interview with managing director of Nomen UK: Emma Peto 2/2

In this second and last part of the video, Emma Peto, managing director of Nomen UK will be exploring the depths of a good brief and how this will impact the synergy with clients. We also look at the details of what exactly happens after a name has been created.

Thank you for watching. Do let us know what you thought and if you have any questions that you would've asked or would like to ask us.

Interview with managing director of Nomen UK: Emma Peto 1/2

Managing director of Nomen UK, Emma Peto, talks about the necessary skills for naming and how these intertwine with the naming process; highlighting the importance of naming and how it is done.

In the second video we will be exploring the depths of a good brief and how good communication facilitates the naming procedure as well as what happens after a name is created.

Part two will be available this Friday; tomorrow.

You'd Butter Believe It!

Many writers (like Bill Bryson and Stephen Clarke to name but two) have written about their experience of living or travelling in a foreign country. Living myself outside of my home country, I thought “why not sharing some of the adventures I lived when I still was a newcomer in the country of Her Majesty?”

Shortly after arriving somewhere, one of the first things one usually does is look for food. That’s something natural to do really. So one of the first things I did after arriving in the country was to look for food too.

If you think that going shopping in a foreign supermarket is going to be easy – I don’t mean to discourage anyone here but – you’re wrong. Although the “concept” of supermarket is the same, I wasn’t prepared to enter a whole new world (I will come back on that in a later post).

When I think about it now I can’t help thinking that this experience proved at least one thing: the choice of your brand name is essential.

The thing when you are new in a country is that you haven’t grown up with the local brands and therefore you know nothing about them, you don’t have your favourite brands yet and most importantly, you don’t know what brand to trust.

I came to this simple conclusion in the dairy section while I was looking for butter. There I was welcomed by a shelf crammed with – mainly yellow – tubs (as if the wealth and success of a country could be measured by the amount of the same stuff you can display on a supermarket shelf!). Some call it “choice”. Choice is good when you know the brands or have at least heard of them before. In my case back then, having the choice didn’t prove great as it confused me even more. But let’s go back to that shelf crammed with tubs. In France, butter is usually sold wrapped in foil and it’s the margarine that is sold in tubs. At that point I thought that surely British people too liked spreading butter on their toast so I started exploring the shelf more thoroughly. Not knowing anything about the brands I had in front of me wasn’t helping at all. Imagine looking for something and not knowing what this thing looks like or basically picture Indiana Jones in The Last Crusade, when he is facing all those Grails and needs to pick the right one; well, that was pretty much me looking for some butter that day.

So how did I choose in the end (no, I didn’t give up!)? I ended up picking a brand with the word “butter” in it: that was what I was looking for and therefore it was reassuring. In addition to that, the brand name managed to make me laugh (which is quite unexpected when you are in the dairy products aisle) making this whole first experience in a foreign supermarket on my own less traumatic. “You’d Butter Believe It!” That name has made me smile ever since, despite the fact that I have tried many other butter brands since then.