Cheery jingles have long been part of getting into the Christmas holiday spirit. But even if the tunes get stuck in our heads and we know the lyrics by heart, do we really know what they mean? For example, what is figgy pudding? Troll the ancient Yuletide carol and learn more about these archaic Christmas words.

“Bells on bobtails ring, making spirits bright” is an unforgettable line from the 19th-century carol “Jingle Bells.” A bobtail is a short or docked tail of an animal, especially on a horse or dog. The premise of this carol is riding on a “one-horse open sleigh” — which was also the song’s original title — so these bobtails are on horses whose tails are decorated with bells for the holiday season.

The most memorable use of “figgy pudding” must be in the carol “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” which includes the lyric, “Oh, bring us some figgy pudding.” Perhaps surprisingly, figgy pudding doesn’t even have to contain figs. This dish dates back to 14th-century England, where it was also called “plum pudding,” but plums as we know them today weren’t in the recipe either. In the recipe’s original form, “figs” or “plums” referred to any kind of dried fruit, and figgy pudding was a savory dish, made with beef, mutton, raisins, prunes, wine, and spices.

Modern figgy pudding is a sweeter recipe. Today, it’s a Christmas staple similar to a fruitcake, made of flour, sugar, spices, and dried fruit. In some recipes, that fruit is figs, but it doesn’t have to contain figs to be called “figgy pudding.”

“Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” was written in 1739, but it remains one of the most popular of the Christmas hymns. “Hark” is from the Old English verb “hearken,” meaning “listen.” In the 19th century, “hark” was commonly used as a hunting call to gain attention, but the word is likely used now only in this hymn.

“Jubilee” is an archaic word for a celebration, such as in the “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” line, “The kids in boy and girl land will have a jubilee.” “Jubilee” has been in English since the 14th century, when it was used to denote the anniversary of the emancipation of enslaved Hebrews. Today, it retains the meaning of a celebration, and is often used to reference anniversary celebrations, such as the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

“O Christmas Tree” was originally a German song called “O Tannenbaum.” The word Tannenbaum literally translates to “fir tree” from German, but also means “Christmas tree,” although it’s rather archaic in the German language today. Germans also use der Weihnachtsbaum for “Christmas tree.”

In “Deck the Halls,” the word “troll” is a verb meaning “to sing loudly” or “to celebrate in song” — it has nothing to do with the mythical creatures in Scandinavian folklore. So, to “troll the ancient Yuletide carol” is essentially to cheerfully and loudly sing Christmas carols.

“Wassail” has been around since at least the 12th century, when it was used in the Old Norse toast ves heill, meaning “be well.” By the 14th century, it was used to describe a warm beverage enjoyed around Christmastime (such as wine or cider). Christmas carolers enjoyed these warm drinks on cold winter nights, which brings us to the next definition of “wassail,” a verb to describe riotous drinking. “Wassailing” eventually became synonymous with caroling and other Christmas festivities, resulting in the 1850 song “Here We Come A-Wassailing” (“The Wassailing Song”), better known today as “Here We Come A-Caroling.”

“Yuletide” is an archaic term for the Christmas season, as seen in “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” in the line “Make the Yuletide gay.” This essentially means “to make the Christmas season cheerful.” The word “Yule” itself is an Old English word that refers to Christmas Day. It comes from the Old Norse jol, a three-day festival that began on the winter solstice.

For those of us who like to gloss over details sometimes, nothing will ever beat Elaine Benes’ patented phrase “yada yada yada,” but “et cetera” is a close second. From Latin, “et cetera” means “and the other things, the rest,” and it’s often used at the end of lists to imply there are more entries than those explicitly enumerated. But rather than wrap this edition up quickly by closing with “et cetera” now, let’s take a closer look at the phrase’s origins and meaning.

Though we most often see them together in English, both et and cetera are Latin words on their own. Et means “and,” while cetera is the plural form of ceterus, meaning “the other… which remains.”  Today, you’re likely to see the term written as two words, (incorrectly) as a single “etcetera,” or as an abbreviated “etc.”

The abbreviation of “etc.” is so common today that someone is likely to understand its usage even without knowing the full phrase, but there is an earlier abbreviation that has fallen out of use. Going back to the 15th century, there are writings that use the abbreviation “&c.” (The first symbol is the ampersand, which means “and.”) This particular usage was extended to formal letter writing, as it was common to use “&c.” later in the letter to replace the title of the person to whom the letter was addressed. Though far less common today, there’s evidence of people writing “&c.” as late as the 1970s.

You may also come across the Latin abbreviation et al., short for et alii (masculine), et aliae (feminine), or et alia (neuter), but this isn’t a substitution for “et cetera.” The Latin phrase translates to “and others.” Despite similarities to “et cetera,” et al. is mainly used as a substitute for multiple names strictly in a bibliographical context. You’re likely to see et al. in written works with many citations. We hope that helps you sort through your Latin phrases, abbreviations, lists, etc.

“Winter” means different things around the United States. Folks in New England can almost guarantee they’ll have a white Christmas, while Floridians might see a few flurries on a day or two in January. On the West Coast, in Los Angeles, temperatures might not even dip below 50 degrees Fahrenheit most days. As regions across the country experience winter weather very differently, they also have special language for their regional winter weather occurrences. Texas has a “blue norther,” for example, and the Northeast might experience a “bomb cyclone.” The Pacific Northwest, meanwhile, is home to “Alberta clippers” and “chinook winds.” Wherever it’s located, winter weather around the United States has proved to be interesting or intense enough to deserve its own jargon.

We’re kicking off by bending the rules — this low-pressure system is named after the western Canadian province of Alberta, but the storms are known to make their way into the U.S. An Alberta clipper is a winter storm that generally moves southward from Alberta into the U.S., by way of the Plains, Midwest, and Great Lakes regions. It’s characterized by light snow, strong winds, and extremely cold temperatures. If the storm forms farther east in Canada, it’s sometimes called a “Saskatchewan screamer,” after the province of Saskatchewan.

Blue northers are common occurrences for Texans during wintertime. These cold fronts cause a rapid drop in temperatures across the Southern Plains, often accompanied by icy precipitation. The name likely stems from the idea that these fronts are followed by a period of blue skies. Texas’ worst blue norther on record happened in 1899 when temperatures dropped to 23 below zero in the panhandle of the state. Some Texans also call this weather event a “blue whistler,” while in Oklahoma, it’s a “blue darter” or “blue blizzard.”

This massive low-pressure system brings with it blizzards, severe thunderstorms, and heavy precipitation. For a winter cyclone to become a bomb, its central pressure must decrease by at least 24 millibars in 24 hours. This process of rapid intensification is called “bombogenesis,” a term coined in the 1980s that combines “bomb” with “cyclogenesis,” a meteorological term for storm formation. Bomb cyclones are most common along the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S., and cause strong winds, storm surge, coastal flooding, and major snowfall.

The Chinookan peoples include several groups of Indigenous peoples from the Pacific Northwest, and the word “chinook” has been adopted to refer to a type of helicopter, a variety of salmon, and a warm winter wind. In the Salish language, chinook means “snow eater,” which is exactly what these winds do. A chinook is a warm winter wind that blows down the Rocky Mountains (in the U.S. and stretching up into Canada) onto the eastern slopes and prairies, melting the snow. Usually, chinook winds are welcome because they give locals a break from the cold, harsh winters.

Nor’easters are powerful storms that primarily impact the Northeastern U.S. during the winter, but they can happen anytime from September through April. The name comes from the fact that the winds blow in from the northeast. These incredibly strong storms can bring high winds and heavy snowfall. In fact, some of the most famous storms in U.S. history have been nor’easters, such as the Storm of the Century (also called the Blizzard of 1993). As nor’easters intensify along the Atlantic coast, they reach maximum strength in New England and Canada, sometimes causing devastating impacts to major cities, including Boston, Philadelphia, New York City, and Washington, D.C.

As its name suggests, a polar vortex is a low-pressure winter system that originates near the North or South Pole. Polar vortexes exist at the poles year-round but strengthen during the winter. Northern areas of the U.S. may experience a polar vortex when the vortex at the North Pole expands, sending very cold air southward with the jet stream. These cold surges sometimes result in dangerously low temperatures, and can impact vast portions of the country.

A scutch is a light dusting of snow, also called a “flurry.” “Scutch” is used mostly by Delawareans, but this charming term has been used in English to mean “a slight layer or thin coating” or “a sprinkling” since the early 20th century. The term likely came from Scotland originally.

“Skiff” is another word for a light snowfall, and it’s used especially in the Midwest. It likely came from the Scottish verb “skiff,” meaning “to lightly move across a surface barely touching it.”

A snow squall is an intense but usually short period of moderate to intense snowfall, known for low visibility and poor travel conditions. While these types of storms aren’t new, this term wasn’t used in official weather warnings until 2018. Because of their short duration (usually less than 30 minutes), they can also be called a “flash freeze.” Squalls differ from blizzards in that blizzards impact a wider area and usually last longer. The word “squall” came into English in the early 18th century as a nautical term meaning “a sudden, violent gust of wind.”