As a lover of words, I’ve been keeping my eyes open for unusual Christmas vocabulary and found some proper festive treats!
- Belly-cheer – Gluttonous eating or feasting. May include raising a toast in festive manner by calling out “Wassail!”
- Yule-hole – not as rude as it sounds, you may need this after belly-cheer, as it’s the extra notch on your belt that’s needed to accommodate a huge meal
- Hogamadog – a large ball of snow created by rolling a small one, commonly occurring in snowman-building situations
- Toe-cover – a cheap and useless present, this was a popular 1940s slang term
- Snerdle – to get wrapped up cosy and warm in bed, for example “when the weather outside is frightful”
- Drachenfutter – a present given to appease someone. Literally, German for ‘dragon feed’ and traditionally used in context of a spousal gift
- Crump – the official term for the satisfying sound of walking on crisp snow
- Yuleshard – someone who leaves Christmas preparations till the last minute
- Doniferous – carrying a gift to give to someone
- Scurryfunge – to rush around tidying up before visitors arrives, likely behaviour by a Yuleshard!
- Apolaustic – totally devoted to the pursuit of one’s own enjoyment. This might be through wassailing, belly-cheer or other festive excess
- Ninguid – snow-covered. A beautiful adjective which I am now determined to bring into my mainstream vocabulary.
I’m very tempted to set myself a Yuletide Bingo Challenge to see if I can somehow wedge all of these into conversation over Christmas dinner.
If you’re having a party, these obscure Christmas words might form the basis of a great quiz round – challenge guests to guess the meanings and prepare to laugh at some of the wilder answers!
With thanks to mentalfloss.com, The Independent, Merriam-Webster’s Wordplay blog, Howstuffworks.com.