Like many other words in European languages, the French word nöel traces back to Latin and the word natalis, which means “birthday” or “relating to birth.” It’s also the root of English words like neonatal and postnatal.
Virtually every other language has a word for Christmas. Spanish-speakers celebrate Navidad. The Italians have Natale and the Dutch look forward to Kerstmis.
But why do we English-speakers sing “The First Noel,” the French word for Christmas, and not say “The First Weihnachten,” the German word?
When was the First Noel?
Like many other words in European languages, the French word nöel traces back to Latin and the word natalis, which means “birthday” or “relating to birth.” It’s also the root of English words like neonatal and postnatal.
It’s not difficult to see how the Latin word for birth evolved into a French word celebrating the birth of Christ.
In addition to being the word for Christmas in French, nöel also began to be used to refer to Christmas-related songs, similar to “carols” in English.
The earliest known musical use of nöel dates back to the 1400s and a song called “Nova Vobis Gaudia,” according to the Merriam-Webster podcast on the word “noel.”
Nöels were sung for centuries in French and Latin before word came to English at end of the 18th century.
The earliest English citation of “noel” meaning “carols” comes from 1771 in a book by J.F. Bielfeld entitled: The Elements of Universal Erudition: Containing an Analytical Abridgment of the Sciences, Polite Arts, and Belles Lettres. It doesn’t quite roll right off the tongue.
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