Despite a globally warmish December air in New York, it’s still very much the Christmas season, with Christmas songs playing as a backdrop to our days and gift-shopping quests. Those songs have a way of connecting one year to the next and most of them are as familiar as old friends. And yet within the familiar words and tunes, language change is all over the place.
Take the song lodged in my head right now: it’s the Judy Garland/Frank Sinatra/James Taylor/Alvin and the Chipmunks (they all sang it) favorite, “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas;” there is a line in that song that says “Make the yuletide gay”: now, most of us can guess from context that “Yule” (heard in other songs) means Christmas, and then extrapolate that “yuletide” probably means Christmas time -- but where do those words come from? And why do we sing them?
In fact, Yule is the old Germanic name for the winter solstice celebration, a big bonfire-oriented festival that traditionally fell on the December solstice. In those pagan days, and in those northern European climes, the cold, snowy land looked fairly bleak and days were short and dark. By December 21, the shortest day of the year, the theme of those solstice parties was “light” – as in Bring It Back. Building bonfires and dancing around them was no doubt a big morale booster for those worried that the sun was dying; other bright or light-themed decorations and festivities were a major feature – then as now.
Even the word for our color, “yellow,” or Old English “geolu” (give the “g” a “y” sound) is rooted in the ancient word for “bright.” And the Anglo-Saxons’ word for the month of December was “geola.”
Although “Yule” predated Christianity in northern Europe, once the people were converted, Yule came to be another word for Christmas. Even today, Scandinavians wish each other “God Jul” (Good Yule) “Tide” is the Germanic word for “time,” with “yuletide” traditionally stretching from December 24-January 6.
As for making the yuletide “gay,” well, it’s clear in 2006 that that word has also undergone some meaningful change since the song was written in 1944, when the word still meant "happy." Even then, though, in some circles, “gay,” had an extended meaning of “carefree – including "living outside the norm.” For a while, straight men who were bachelors could be considered “gay,” if their lives were unconventional enough, as in the Fred Astaire movie, "The Gay Divorcee." But by the late 1960s the word had come to mean being homosexual or lesbian. Still, James Taylor, in his 2001 version of "Have Yourself", sings the word the way it was originally intended and it sounds just right. Sometimes, context is everything.
Speaking of word change, this week’s posting includes a question from a Language Lady reader, who asks:
Q. Can you teach me the difference between "presently" and "currently”? I avoid these words because I'm confused.
-- Bev, from Virginia
A. No wonder you’re confused, Bev: “Presently” means both “now” and “later.” You’ve caught a word that seems to be in transition from one meaning to another. It usually takes decades or longer for a word to fully realize the change, so we are not used to noticing the changes going on in our own lifetime. However unwittingly, you have found one! In the Encarta World English Dictionary, the first meaning of “presently” is “in a short while;” the second meaning is “now,” with synonyms listed as “at the moment,” “at present,” and – last but not least – “currently.”
It is the second meaning of “presently” – as “now,” or “currently” – that is the Definition Upstart. In my 1978 American Heritage Dictionary, the Usage Panel said that although the word was increasingly used that way, it was acceptable to only 47% of the Usage Panel. Twenty years later, my Oxford Essential English Dictionary says that both meanings – “soon” as well as “now” are widely used.
But if you ask me, “presently” meaning “now” – as in, “We are presently undergoing technical difficulties,” is the more popular understanding of the word; however, “presently” is not the kind of word we say when speaking. For example, we would never think to say, in answer to a question, “Oh, he’s presently out of the office.” Even if that were a written response, it would be on the formal and stilted side. But using “presently” to mean “shortly” sounds even more stilted -- to my ears like nature shows with some English (British) narrator speaking in low tones: “And presently we’ll see the hungry python devour the curious rat …”
Nonetheless, saying, “We are presently not accepting any more applications” is absolutely correct and clear, and fine for form-letter types of writing. However, I prefer the word, “currently” – as much for the acoustic strength of the “hard-C” as for the lack of confusion; as in, “We are not currently accepting …” Plug in “now” and you get: “We are not now accepting …” which is all right but sounds a bit hard – “now” is just too short, and not fluid enough for my taste in that context; still, it is certainly clear and concise. The only thing you should not do is substitute any of the “now” synonyms for “at the present time,” or “at this point in time,” those being way too wordy and bland.
In today’s New York Times Magazine William Safire discusses the transition of the words “rear” and “raise”: It used to be, he said, that people “reared” their children and “raised” their crops, and for years he used to politely correct friends who mentioned “raising kids.” But in today’s article, Safire conceded that the word for bringing up one’s children was now – as baby boomer and younger parents can attest from personal experience and usage -- definitely “raise.”
So you could say: In 1966, “raising children” would only PRESENTLY be the standard way to express “bringing up children;” whereas in 2006 “raising children” is PRESENTLY, or CURRENTLY, the only way to say it.
Well, presently, the presents will be presented; the Yule will be celebrated and we’ll once more recite “The Night Before Christmas” and still not really know what, exactly “visions of sugar plums” look like – but that’s okay. You can still have yourself a merry little yuletide, presently.
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