It's the word of the day for December 25th.
Today's word is NOEL, spelled N-O-E-L.
NOEL is a noun.
When capitalized, it refers to Christmas or to the Christmas season.
Uncapitalized, the word refers to a Christmas carol.
Here's the word used in a sentence from the Pikes Peak Courier.
The meeting began with a touch of holiday spirit as members of the Woodland Park High School Madrigals sang three selections.
The first was a Noel song with a medieval Renaissance feel that was well matched to their festive costumes.
They followed with the popular Carol of the Bells and We Wish You a Merry Christmas.
English speakers borrowed the word Noël from the French word Noël, spelled with two dots over the E,
called a trémat in French or an umlaut or a diérosis,
which is also used for both the Christmas holiday and a Christmas carol.
It can be traced further back to the Latin word natalis,
which can mean birthday as a noun or of or relating to birth as an adjective.
The English adjective natal has the same meaning and is also an offspring of Natalis.
Noels were being sung in Latin and French for centuries before English speakers started using the word to refer to Christmas carols in the early 18th century.
An early use of Noel spelled N-O-W-E-L to mean Christmas can be found in the text of the late 14th century Arthurian legend,
Sir Gowan in the Green Night.
With your Word of the Day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.