noel
/nəʊˈɛl/ noun, interjection, proper noun
Forms noels nowell nowel Noyal
- noun A kind of hymn, or canticle, of mediaeval origin, sung in honor of the birth of Christ; a Christmas carol.
- interjection (archaic) A wish or expression of commemoration of Christmas.
- proper noun (literary or dated) Christmas.
- proper noun A male given name from French.
- proper noun A female given name from French.
- proper noun A surname originating as a patronymic.
- proper noun A city in McDonald County, Missouri, United States.
- proper noun A community in East Hants municipality, Hants County, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Synonyms
Christmas City Christmas Christmastide Christmastime Yule Yuletide
Etymology
From Middle English nowel, from Anglo-Norman noel, Middle French noel, a variant of nael, from Latin adjective nātālis (“natal, having to do with birth”).
From Middle English Nowel, borrowed from Old French Noel (“Christmas”), from Latin nātālis [diēs Dominī] (“birth[day of the Lord]”). Doublet of nada, natal, Natal, and née.
* (names): From Noel in the sense of Christmas; given since Middle Ages to children born at Christmastide.
* (city in Missouri): Named for brothers Clark Wallace and William Jasper Noel, stockmen and owners of a sawmill.
* (community of Nova Scotia, Canada): Named after its most prominent resident, Noël Doiron.
Webster’s 1913
- noun Same as Nowel.
Etymology [F. noël, L. natalis birthday, fr. natalis natal. See Natal.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “noel”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details