Note 801 — Chapter XI · THE BEGINNING OF WINTER
Reading edition
Tille, Y. and C. 147. The terms gehhol, geóhel, geól, giúl, iûl, &c. signify the Christmas festival season from the ninth century onwards, and from the eleventh also Christmas Day itself. The fifteenth-century forms are Yule, Ywle, Yole, Yowle. In the A.-S. Chronicle the terms used for Christmas are ‘midewinter,’ ‘Cristes mæssa,’ ‘Cristes tyde,’ ‘Natiuitedh.’ As a single word ‘Cristesmesse’ appears first in 1131 (Tille, Y. and C. 159). The German ‘Weihnacht’ (M.H.G. wich, ‘holy’) appears †1000 (Tille, D. W. 22).