Friday December 21, 2007
It’s reindeer, dears, not deers
Strictly Speaking
By STEPHEN KAU
LET’S discuss common perceptions of some words that most folks know – or don’t know – are linked with the Christmas season.
Scrooge: “Of biblical origin”, meaning a miserly person.
Actually, it was English author Charles Dickens (1812-1870) who invented Ebenezer “Bah, humbug!” Scrooge, that money-counting-but-never-spending character in the 1843 novel, A Christmas Carol.
Boxing Day: “The day after the 25th, for getting rid of boxes, cartons, parcels, packages, etc, after all that gift-unwrapping, and also for people to sweat away Christmas Day’s excesses of drinking/eating, by participating in physical activities such as fist fights and sports.”
Traditionally, however, it was meant to be the day for putting away the best clothes into boxes for another year before the next big celebration, and also to put unwanted gifts into boxes for distribution to the less fortunate in the community.
Advent: “A modern noun meaning something very important that exists or is imminent”, for example, the advent of 21st-century inventions.
In religious circles, though, this word refers to the four weeks leading to the big day.
Wreath: “A negative sign/symbol of mourning”, used usually for funerals to represent death. But dictionaries say a wreath is a ring of flowers and leaves. Therefore, significantly, it is a positive image of life.
Santa suit: “The now-familiar red-white-black outfit invented by The Coca-Cola Company.” Not true. The red-dressed figure of St Nicholas was familiar to many communities before the soft-drink conglomerate popularised the icon in its massive advertising campaigns in the 1930s.
Santa Claus: Many think this is a Dutch name of Father Christmas that the people of the Netherlands have given the world. Credit the Americans for coming up with their simpler version of the Dutch word Sinterklaas.
Yuletide season: “Because in the temperate and the near-arctic regions in the northern hemisphere, the weeks leading to Christmas Day are so cold, most people burn yule logs – a kind of timber – to keep warm.”
The yule, in this instance, has nothing to do with a variety of wood. The festival of Yule, from “jul” (as referred to by Scandinavians), pre-dates Christianity, in fact.
Tinsel: “As in Tinseltown, another name for Hollywood, invented by some movie moguls in the 1930s.”
Well, with due respect to silver-screen egomaniacs, the word is of French origin, “estincele”, meaning sparkle, and refers to the thin plastic/metal strips that are so much a part of decorations for Christmas trees all over the world.
Mistletoe: “A cute flower that romantics use to get kisses from loved ones.”
Traditionally, anybody found standing under a mistletoe is fair game to be kissed. But this is no flower. It is an evergreen species of parasitic plant that flourishes in Europe and North America. And, really, can a word with “toe” in it be “cute”?
And, finally, reindeers: Used by so many Australians, young and old alike, particularly harassed Aussie mums dragging their kids away from decorations and toys in order to finish their Christmas shopping. As in, “Listen, darlings, let’s look at the reindeers next time, because Mummy must buy your prezzies first, right?”
Tsk! These are the same folks who don’t say “sheeps” to pluralise the noun representing a certain woolly (and downright stupid) animal. So why they would use “reindeers” is puzzling.
Talking about reindeer ... it is not true that Santa has only eight of them. He has hundreds. But it is true that only nine of them can fly (and only on Christmas Eve). So how many of these can you name? And who do you think is the fastest?
Cheers, folks, and merry Christmas!
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