Wassail

noun

• A hot, spiced alcoholic beverage traditionally served at Twelfth's Night or Christmas Eve celebrations; historically, the drink used to toast someone's health in Old English custom
• A festive revelry with drinking, carousing, and good company (Archaic and Historical)
• A song sung by those participating in a festive party (Archaic and Historical)
• An Old English salutation used when toasting someone's health (Archaic and Historical)

verb

• To sing festive songs in company, especially Christmas songs (Archaic)
• To drink and carouse in company (Archaic)
• To drink a toast to someone's or something's health (Archaic and Historical)

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Usage

Many of us might be familiar with the word wassail due to the Christmas carol "Here We Come A'Wassailing." That carol is recounting a tradition of rowdy carousing and (sometimes forceful) gift exchanging which we no longer practice today, although it bears some slight resemblance to modern Christmas caroling. The word's original meaning in English was different, but it also had something to do with partying and drinking. Wassail was originally something that someone would say in Anglo-Saxon custom when drinking to someone's health. If, for example, you were an Anglo-Saxon chieftain, you might drink wassail to your rival after agreeing to a treaty. However, words are slippery things, and wassail's meaning expanded to many other things related to this custom. First, it came to refer to the practice and the act of toasting someone's health in its entirety, and then it came to refer to the drink used to make the toast as well! Thus, you could say "Wassail!" as you wassailed a friend with a mug of wassail. Over time, wassail's meaning came to apply only to a specific kind of hot alcoholic drink served chiefly at Christmas Eve and Twelfth Night celebrations. In time, the word also was used to refer to Christmas carols or the act of singing Christmas carols or other festive songs.

Today, most uses of wassail have fallen out of use, but the hot alcoholic drink remains! Many people still enjoy a bowl of wassail at their Christmas Eve or Twelfth Night's feasts. If you encounter a hot, mulled cider at a holiday get-together this year it just might be a wassail, especially if it is served with apples or oranges. In fact, wassail has become very much a Christmas word. Although this understanding is not strictly accurate, wassail is sometimes used colloquially as more or less synonymous with Christmas caroling. It is likely that wassail would have passed out of use entirely by now, if it were not for the fact that it is preserved in Christmas traditions and especially Christmas carols.

Example: As the Twelfth's Night feast wore on, Harold drank cup after cup of hot, spiced wassail from the bowl.

Example: The whole town danced and drank late into the night at the wild wassail put on by the Earl. (Archaic)

Example: The whole family joined together in heartily singing wassails in celebration of the Christmas season. (Archaic)

Example: The chieftain raised his glass and drank wassail to his host and brother. (Archaic and Historical)

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Bring out the linguist in you! What is your own interpretation of wassail. Did you use wassail in a game? Provide an example sentence or a literary quote.