Here We Come a-Wassailing Trivia Quiz

Answer: An Old English word for a toast

The tradition of wassailing involved going door to door (originally to the lord's manor house or castle), singing songs and offering good wishes in the expectation of receiving some reward in return. This reward often took the form of a goblet of spiced wine or of ale to be passed around, as everyone wished each other good health. The wassail is used to describe the toast, the drink, and the practice of singing for it. Christmas gatherings even today may have a wassail bowl, similar to a punch bowl, in which a hot spiced drink based on cider, beer or wine (often with baked apples floating in it) is served to guests.

In the west of England, wassailing was also used as a term to describe the practice of singing to the apple trees to encourage a good harvest.

Answer: Sing in a full, rolling voice

Scandinavian trolls have nothing to do with the singing of Christmas carols! The verb troll used to describe a manner of singing has been used since the end of the 16th century; its earlier meaning was related to strolling. This sense of the word led to the word troll being used as a noun, meaning the act of going around (first seen in 1705, according to the Online Etymological Dictionary) and later to mean a song sung as a round. The song 'Deck the Halls' dates from the mid-19th century.

The other words we don't use very often are don (meaning to put on) and apparel (meaning clothing). When I was young, I didn't understand the meaning of the word don, and heard this line as being addressed to someone named Don - it didn't make a lot of sense! Then again, since I related trolling to a method of fishing, I wasn't all that sure how it fit into the activities of the song, either.

Answer: Praise

Since a herald is a messenger, the verb herald can be used simply to describe the act of announcing something, but it is usually used with the connotation of announcing it with praise. The subject of this praise is said to be heralded.

The first word of the song, hark, is also a word we don't use every day. It is probably a shortened form from the verb hearken, meaning to listen closely.

Answer: Mooing

The verb low comes from an Old English word, hlowan, which means to make a noise like a cow - the colloquial term would be to moo. It is not related to the idea of low as opposed to high, which comes from the older word lah. The obsolete use of low to describe a place as a hill is different in origin again - it comes from the Old English hlaw.

Answer: Near

In Old English, the words neah, near and niehsta indicated increasing degrees of closeness. Over time, near and next (evolving from niehsta) became independent words, no longer used as the comparative and superlative forms of neah (which turned into nigh). In the 14th century the word nigh added the forms nigher and nighest, none of which have survived into contemporary usage.

Answer: Both frankincense and myrrh

Myrrh is the resin of any of several small trees in the genus Commiphora, while frankincense is the resin from trees in the genus Boswellia. The name frankincense comes into English from French, where the word 'franc', meaning noble or true, was used to denote incense of the highest quality.

The name for myrrh comes (through Greek and Latin) originally from one of several Semitic words meaning bitter. Both resins have been used through the ages for incense and perfumes. Myrrh also has a number of medicinal uses.

Answer: They have been split

Images of the scene described here often show a cloud-covered sky, in the centre of which is a clear area (splitting the clouds apart) through which glowing angels fly. The verb cleave is interesting because it has two totally opposite meanings. One meaning, for which cloven and cleft are sometimes used as past participles, means to split into smaller parts, and comes from the Old English cleofan.

The other means to adhere, or cling together, and comes from the Old English clifian. Old English usage kept the two words clearly distinct from each other, but a type of linguistic convergent evolution has led to them currently looking the same, despite being opposite in meaning!

Answer: Nearby

Yonder might also be paraphrased as meaning 'over there', suggesting a location close enough to point out, but not in the immediate vicinity. It comes from an Old English word (geond) meaning up to some point, in its comparative form (which puts it at a slightly greater distance than yond, a word you are even less likely to use in everyday speech than yonder or the related adjective yon).

Answer: Wavelets

The word tidings has been used (although not often in recent times) since around 1200 CE, adapted from the late Old English noun tidung, which itself came from the Old English tidan, a verb meaning to happen. The word is always used in what seems to be a plural form - you never see anyone describe a tiding, similarly to the usage of the noun news.

Answer: Black

Colly is a regional English word for black. Clearly it had limited currency, as nineteenth century versions use a variety of other terms to describe the fourth day, including canary birds, colour'd birds, curley birds, and corley birds, before the 1909 use of calling birds gained widespread acceptance.

The etymology of the word colly is uncertain, but it may be related to the word coal, or the Scottish word colie, used to describe someone or something which is black with coal dust. (That same word is said to be the source of the name for the dog breed collie, although many of them are not black at all!)