My knowledge of latin is centred around plant names. I hadn't remembered that Noel comes from the Latin verb nasci and natus, meaning to be born, or natalist, pertaining to birth or origin. It travelled through Old French then Old English to become Noel in the late 14th century to represent Christmas, the Feast of the Nativity.
In Christmas carols, noel is a lyric that expresses joy. How many carols are there with Noel? On the lyrics search site, the results for a 'noel' search retrieved 1,476 lyrics, 30 artists and 100 albums.
There are more than 30 artists with the name Noel, almost 100 albums listed, and then a seemingly unending list of The First Noel lyrics with every artist imaginable - the second on the list is Annie Lennox.
Would you like to prepare for Christmas with a pun list? Here are a few of the entries for Noel from punpedia.com:
Know* → Noël*: As in, “A little noëledge is a dangerous thing” and “Don’t I noël it” and “I don’t noël why” and “Be the first to noël” and “Better the devil you noël than the devil you don’t” and “General noëledge” and “Goodness noëls” and “Takes one to noël one” and “The end of the world as we noël it” and “Noëledge is power” and “Secure in the noëledge that…”
Nail → Noël: As in, “Another noël in the coffin” and “Fight tooth and noël” and “Hit the noël on the head” and “On the noël” and “When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a noël.”
Check out punpedia - it is amazing in its comprehensive coverage of the words around Christmas. There's no 'about', etc to find out who has put together this remarkable information.
Given the flexibility of the word, there are a few silly noel jokes to be found:
What kind of medal would Santa Claus win? A Noel Prize
Why don't we call it Christlmas? Noel.
My sister said she didn't need a hymnal because she knew the lyrics to every Christmas song. I told my brother, "Don't mind her, she's just a big noel-it-all."
Our snowstorm images show Peninsula Ridge Winery - the wonderful Kitchen House in the background, and then looking from the property towards Grimsby. There's a wonderful Lake view at the winery.
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