Where does “Christmas creep” come from?
Christmas creep (English) comes from English Christmas, from Middle English Cristemasse, from Old English Cristes mæsse, from Old English mæsse, from Vulgar Latin messa, from Latin missa, from Latin missum, from Latin mittō — to hurt; to exchange, remove; to replace, to...
Christmas creep (English): The inexorable tendency for the commercial...
Definitions
- The inexorable tendency for the commercial...
Ancestry of “Christmas creep”, step by step
Christmas creep traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English Christmas
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | Christmas | A festival or holiday commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ and incorporating various Christian, pre-Christian, pagan, and secular customs including gift-giving, which in Western Christianity is celebrated on December 25 (Christmas Day) in most places |
| 2 | Middle English | Cristemasse | Christmas the 25th of December |
| 3 | Old English | Cristes mæsse | Christmas |
| 4 | Old English | mæsse | mass |
| 5 | Vulgar Latin | messa | Eucharist, dismissal; Eucharist; dismissal;... |
| 6 | Latin | missa | Mass; Christian eucharistic liturgy; nominative... |
| 7 | Latin | missum | accusative supine of mittō; inflection of... |
| 8 | Latin | mittō | to send, dispatch, cause to go, let go, release, discharge |
| 9 | Proto-Italic | meitō | to put forth, put out |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | meyth₂- | to hurt; to exchange, remove; to replace, to... |
via English creep
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | creep | To move slowly with the abdomen close to the... |
| 2 | Middle English | crepen | To move in a subtle or secretive way; To enter or... |
| 3 | Old English | crēopan | to creep, crawl |
| 4 | Proto-West Germanic | *kreupan | to creep, crawl |
| 5 | Proto-Germanic | kreupaną | to twist, to creep |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | ger- | to turn, bend, twist, wind; to tie, bind... |