Work of the Week! Carol Richmond Writing

Work of the Week! Carol Richmond Writing Ever since I took on the role of Ebenezer Scrooge in our schools 6th grade Christmas play, Ive wondered about the term carol. The only other instance of the word had been a proper name, usually female. When meant as a song, usage can be traced as far back by the OED to the 14th Century. For a song specifically for Christmas, the oldest recorded usage there is the 16th. By the time Dickens wrote his tale, I suppose other uses of the word had become rare. Like the novelist, however, we still employ the adjective Christmas before the noun, a redundancy; there are no Thanksgiving carols or Valentines Day carols, after all. Some of us even go caroling, and we do not modify the gerund at all. As to its origins, our word of the week harkens back to the Middle English karol and the Old French  carole. The latter apparently signified a round dance with singing. Incidentally, hark, a verb for listen that we tend to only use in a particular carol, itself comes from Middle English. We trot out the language of Chaucer for special occasions, or even older words such as last years pick, Yule.   Think about it for a moment: when have you used the word herald, as a noun or verb, save in reference to a newspapers title? I have been reading Henry Bradleys excellent, and once influential book  The Making of English.  Ive an inexpensive Dover edition, but it can be had, for free, online. Bradley notes how enriching the influence of other languages were upon English, a process that continues today. The very act of including new terms adds nuance, Bradley insists, and the pedantry that would bid us reject the word fittest to our purpose. . .ought to be strenuously rejected. In that spirit, carol has come to possess a singular use, giving us just the right term at just the correct time. Bradley refers to this process of narrowing meanings as specialization, whereby a word of wide meaning acquires a narrower sense. Something about the season of lengthening nights, then returning light, also brings out ancient words from many faiths, words perfectly suited to solemnity of long dark nights or the joy of celebrations. Some of us deck those halls and trim a tree without cutting it. I attend a Yule party every year, where we wassail the apple tree: drinking a toast while saying the old Wassail! Drink hale! from pre-Christian days. So hearken to these antique terms this holiday.   And may they be as bright as Scrooges, after he had some ghostly visitors. No humbug around here, please! We will ring in the New Year with a metaphor of the month, but until then, were away for the holidays. Please send us words and metaphors useful in academic writing by e-mailing me (jessid -at- richmond -dot- edu) or leaving a comment below. See all of our Metaphors of the Month  here  and Words of the Week  here. Image from  A Christmas Carol courtesy of Project Gutenberg. Read the  entire text there.