carol
/ˈkɛɹəl/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms carols caroling carolling caroled carolled carrol carroll carrel
- noun (historical) A round dance accompanied by singing.
- noun A ballad or song of joy.
- noun (specifically) A (usually traditional) religious or secular song sung at Christmastime. “They sang a Christmas carol.”
- noun (architecture, obsolete) A small closet or enclosure built against the inner side of a window of a monastery's cloister, to sit in for study.
- verb (intransitive, historical) To participate in a carol (a round dance accompanied by singing).
- verb (intransitive, literary) To sing in a joyful manner. “The sun shone, and the birds were caroling.”
- verb (intransitive) To sing carols; especially to sing Christmas carols in a group.
- verb (transitive) To praise or celebrate in song.
- verb (transitive) To sing (a song) cheerfully.
- proper noun A female given name from the Germanic languages, popular in the middle of the 20th century.
- proper noun A male given name from the Germanic languages.
Synonyms
Etymology
The noun is derived from Middle English carole (“round dance with singing; group of people dancing and singing in a circle; song by carollers, carol; religious poem or song; circular thing; braid, chain (?); stall for study or writing; writing table”), from Old French carole (“round dance with singing”). The further etymology is uncertain; the following possibilities have been suggested:
* From Old Italian carola, or directly from its etymon Medieval Latin choraula, a variant of choraulēs (“flute player accompanying a chorus dance”), from Ancient Greek χοραυλής (khoraulḗs, “one who accompanies a chorus on the flute”), from χορός (khorós, “choir; dance”) + αὐλός (aulós, “flute”).
* From Latin corōlla (“little crown, coronet; small chaplet, garland, or wreath”), from corōna (“chaplet, garland, wreath”) + -la (diminutive suffix). Corōna is borrowed from Ancient Greek κορώνη (korṓnē, “type of crown; curved object (door handle, tip of a bow, stern of a ship, etc.)”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to turn, bend”).
Noun sense 3 (“small closet or enclosure”) may refer to the fact that the item encloses or surrounds the person using it.
The verb is derived from Middle English carolen (“to dance and/or sing in a round dance; to sing for (dancers in a round dance); (figurative) to spend time noisily or unprofitably”), from Old French caroler (“to sing”), from carole (noun) (see above) + -er (a variant of -ier (suffix forming infinitives of first-conjugation verbs)).
Shortened from Caroline. Associated by folk etymology with the English noun carol.
Shortened from Latin Carolus; also an Anglicization of Romanian Carol, or Polish or Slovak Karol, all cognates of the English Charles.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A round dance. [Obs.] Chaucer.
- noun A song of joy, exultation, or mirth; a lay. The costly feast, the carol, and the dance. Dryden It was the carol of a bird. Byron.
- verb To praise or celebrate in song.
- verb To sing, especially with joyful notes.
Etymology [OF. carole a kind of dance wherein many dance together, fr. caroler to dance; perh. from Celtic; cf. Armor. koroll, n., korolla, korolli, v., Ir. car music, turn, circular motion, also L. choraula a flute player, charus a dance, chorus, choir.]
Etymology [OF. carole a sort of circular space, or carol.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “carol”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details