Yule
/juːl
/noun
Archaic term for Christmas.It's guaranteed to put some fuel in your Yule and swell in your Noel....
- Three people who will, sadly, not be enjoying their Yule as much as they might like are the ne'er-do-wells recently charged will selling illegally-modified Xboxes.
- The Yule of 1826 to 1827 was one which I may never forget.
Origin
Old English gēol(a) 'Christmas Day'; compare with Old Norse jól, originally applied to a heathen festival lasting twelve days, later to Christmas.
It is now just another word for Christmas, but Yule comes from the Old Norse word jól, a pagan festival at the winter solstice that lasted for twelve days. Germanic and Scandinavian pagans celebrated it in late December or early January, and when they adopted Christianity they simply changed the nature of the festival, turning jól into Christmas. In Old English Yule meant ‘December or January’ and also ‘Christmas and its festivities’. Jolly (Middle English) from Old French jolif ‘merry, handsome, lively’, may come ultimately from the same Old Norse root.