Five fun festive facts (etymologically speaking)

Go prepared to your office parties and family gatherings this year. If the conversation wanes and you’ve already exhausted the Christmas cracker jokes, no problem. Simply crack out one of these little beauties and get the party restarted* in no time.

1. Are the yoof of today to blame for ‘Xmas’?

Hey, teacher, leave those kids alone! No. In fact, the Greeks are the guilty party. ‘X’temmas’ dates back to 1551, when ‘X’ was adopted as a substitute for ‘Christ’. The ‘X’ came from the first letter of the Greek word for Christ, Χριστός (Christos). However, ‘Xmas’ remains widely frowned upon, despite Lord Byron, Samuel Coleridge and Lewis Carroll all having used it.

2. Why is stuffing a farce?

We coined the word ‘stuffing’, at least in the culinary sense, in the 1530s. (We started using it for lewder concepts slightly earlier.) Before that, we’d been using the French word, ‘farce’, from ‘farcir’ (to stuff). At the time, ‘farce’ also referred to the improvised comedies performed between acts in religious plays – literally ‘stuffed’ in – to keep the audience attentive. Today’s meaning of farce has its roots in the improbable plots and slapstick humour of these interludes.

Around the 1880s, the somewhat graphic-sounding ‘stuffing’ fell out of favour in Victorian kitchens and ‘dressing’ appeared. ‘Dressing’ is now rarely used in this context in the UK (though we do use it for ‘salad dressing’). But it remains fairly common in US and Canadian English. There’s a good discussion of this on Lynne Murphy’s Separated by a Common Language blog.

3. Where’s the typo in gravy?

‘Gravy’ is what they call in the business a ‘ghost word’. That is, one that came into being by mistake – usually through misinterpretation, mispronunciation or misreading. With ‘gravy’, the mistake appears to have been made by a monk in the fourteenth century, who misread ‘grané’ (sauce, stew) and transcribed it as ‘gravey’. In French writing of the time, ‘n’ and ‘v’ were difficult to distinguish, especially by candlelight (and after an ale or three).

4. Why is Boxing Day called Boxing Day?

It’s not, as your humble author had assumed until recently (despite a complete absence of supporting evidence), anything to do with boxing matches. There are a couple of explanations – probably related – both of which involve boxes. One is that on the day after Christmas, employers would give their tradesmen and servants a ‘Christmas box’, containing a gift or money. Another is that Anglican churches used to display a box during Advent for their congregations to put money into. On the day after Christmas, the boxes would be opened and the money inside distributed among the poor. Both traditions are far older than the name ‘Boxing Day’, which first appeared in 1809.

5. Why do we say ‘merry Christmas’ and ‘happy new year’, and not the other way around?

‘Happy Christmas and a merry new year’ just doesn’t sound right, does it? And for good reason. Merriness tends to be a fleeting thing, involving mirth, high spirits and perhaps a tot or two of tipsiness. It is festive by nature – and it passes, like Christmas Day. Happiness, meanwhile, can mean a more lasting state that involves contentedness as well as joy and pleasure. So, while we hope that your New Year’s Eve will be a most merry affair, we hope your 2014 will be a happy one. Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

*Party restarting not guaranteed.

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Author: Cathy Dann

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Cathy is a certified word and editing expert, having worked as a sub-editor, editor and copywriter at, to name a few, the Guardian, The Sunday Times, The Telegraph, Which? and The Grocer.