Where does “Christmastime” come from?
Christmastime derives from Middle English time, from Old French thym, from Latin thema, from Ancient Greek θέμα, ultimately from the Ancient Greek verb τίθημι meaning to place or set.
Christmastime (English): Christmas season; Christmastide; yuletide
Definitions
- Christmas season; Christmastide; yuletide
Ancestry of “Christmastime”, step by step
Christmastime 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 Time
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | Time | The inevitable progression into the future with the passing of present and past events |
| 2 | Middle English | tyme | thyme; time; A specific duration or period of... |
| 3 | Old French | thym | — |
| 4 | Latin | thymum | thyme; accusative singular of thymus |
| 5 | Ancient Greek | θύμον | thyme |
| 6 | Ancient Greek | θύω | I offer in sacrifice, slay, burn, immolate; I... |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | dʰewh₂- | smoke; mist, haze |