Sunday, December 25, 2022

Merry Christmas from the Philippines

From Manila:  Gigi De Lana channels Karen Carpenter


In his lyrics, Frank Pooler uses Christmas as a verb:  ...in my dreams I'm Christmasing with you.  We don't see this use much today.  But I'm rather fond of it.  For instance:  This year, we'll be Christmasing in Vermont or We always Christmas in Vermont.  Surely that sounds like something Katharine Hepburn would say.  Anyway, today, Christmas Day, the OED Word of the Day just happened to be the verb Christmas (Christmas, v. – see entry below).  Personally, I think they should add Pooler's lyrics as one of their sample quotations.  Certainly it is one of the most notable and enduring contemporary examples of this use.

Sadly, most modern dictionaries do not even include an entry for Christmas as a verb.  Not Merriam-Webster, not Cambridge, not Collins, not Macmillan.  And I'm not sure any of these ever included it.  The 1913 Webster's Unabridged Dictionary does not include it.  This is why there is the OED, and there is everything else.

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