It means "To celebrate Christmas; to spend the Christmas period in a particular place." That's intransitive. You can also use it as a transitive verb — meaning "To adorn (something, esp. a building or room) with Christmas decorations" — but that is deemed colloquial, so save that for your more relaxed occasions, such as after people have Christmassed quite a bit, perhaps with a can of pop and some Christian Brothers brandy.
Here are some historical examples of Christmas — the verb — collected by the OED:
1884 Daily News 16 Feb. 5/3 Two policemen who had too obviously been ‘Christmassing.’
1967 ‘A. Burgess’ in Hudson Rev. 20 99 I Christmassed in the country.
Those are the intransitive kind. I like this anachronistic appearance of the colloquial transitive verb:
1966 J. Goldman Lion in Winter i. ii. 17 Eleanor. (Moving to the holly boughs.) Come on; let's finish Christmassing the place.
Anachronistic, in that the character, Eleanor of Aquitaine, lived from 1122 to 1204. But who knows how Eleanor talked? Maybe the author wrote the line that way to sound archaic to the people of 1966.
That's her tomb, you may realize. Do you believe in reading after death? If there is reading after death, what books do you think will be available?
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17 comments:
Time Enough at Last
There's voting after death, so why not reading?
We watch The Lion in Winter every Christmas Eve. It's a ritual.
My favorite deck-the-halls line:
"What shall we hang? The holly or each other?"
Keepin' it real re: family dynamics during the holidays.
We watch The Lion in Winter every Christmas Eve; it's our ritual.
My favorite deck-the-halls line:
"What shall we hang? The holly or each other?"
Keepin' it real re: family dynamics during the holidays.
Cheers!
I know just what to get Eleanor for Christmas.
Gideon Bibles?
If there is reading after death, what books do you think will be available?
The Tibetan Book of the Dead.
Eleanor of Aquitaine was one of the most amazing women the world has ever known. She was Queen of France as the wife of Louis VII, and one of the leaders of the Second Crusade. Then after the Pope was persuaded to annul that marriage she remarried — to Henry II, King of England. Two of her sons, Richard the Lionheart and his brother John, were kings of England. She herself ruled England for a time as regent while Richard was leading the Third Crusade.
If she ever turns a page in that book l say look out!
Murder mysteries… medical textbooks…
Wonder how it works in Old French.
>>If there is reading after death, what books do you think will be available?<<
All depends on where you end up.
Heaven: Shakespeare's dramas, Fenimore Cooper (esp., "Mohicans"), Neal Stephenson stuff (esp., "Cryptonomicon), and thousands more...
Hell: The Da Vinci Code, The Twilight Saga,...
No, she's not reading after death. She was reading at the time of her death. That's what is being conveyed by her sarcophagus.
I believe in reading after death.
Harry Potter and John Grisham will be there.
Of course, that's Hell.
All books that ever were or ever might have been will be available, with infinite time to read them, and to converse with the authors.
She has to be reading something. It's written in stone.
"War and Peace" because I will finally have time to read it.
jvb
This biography is one of my favorite books Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings https://a.co/d/06sY2uS
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