wassail

Use this forum to suggest Good Words for Professor Beard.
Palewriter
Lexiterian
Posts: 291
Joined: Sat Apr 09, 2005 11:59 pm

wassail

Postby Palewriter » Wed Dec 27, 2006 12:31 pm

wassail

A timely word to be sure. According to the Online Etymological Dictionary:

c.1140, from O.N. ves heill "be healthy," a salutation, from ves, imperative of vesa "to be" (see was) + heill "healthy" (see health). Use as a drinking phrase appears to have arisen among Danes in England and spread to native inhabitants. A similar formation appears in O.E. wes þu hal, but this is not recorded as a drinking salutation. Sense extended c.1300 to "liquor in which healths were drunk," especially spiced ale used in Christmas Eve celebrations. Meaning "a carousal, reveling" first attested 1602. Wassailing "custom of going caroling house to house at Christmas time" is recorded from 1742.

Belated Christmas greetings to all Agorans, and ves heill.

-- PW
"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention to arrive safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: Wow!!! What a ride!"

Bailey
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 2114
Joined: Tue Mar 21, 2006 7:51 pm

Postby Bailey » Wed Dec 27, 2006 1:30 pm

I need some of that, too bad you have to work between Christmas and New Year's PW.

mark at-home Bailey

Today is the first day of the rest of your life, Make the most of it...
kb









Perry
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 2306
Joined: Wed Mar 29, 2006 9:50 am
Location: Asheville, NC

Postby Perry » Wed Dec 27, 2006 2:30 pm

I am lifting an espresso to your health as we speak. I'd prefer a good ale, but in any event this particular coffee is very fragrant.
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. Lately it hasn't been working."
Anonymous


Return to “Good Word Suggestions”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Ahrefs [Bot] and 44 guests