carol

Meanings

1. A round dance accompanied by singing.
2. A ballad or song of joy.
3. A (usually traditional) religious or secular song sung at Christmastime.
4. A small closet or enclosure built against the inner side of a window of a monastery's cloister, to sit in for study.

1. To participate in a carol (a round dance accompanied by singing).
2. To sing in a joyful manner.
3. To sing carols; especially to sing Christmas carols in a group.
4. To praise or celebrate in song.
5. To sing (a song) cheerfully.

1. A female given name from the Germanic languages, popular in the middle of the 20th century.

1. A male given name from the Germanic languages.

Etymology

The noun is derived from Middle English carole (“round dance with singing; group of people dancing and singing in a circle; song by carollers, carol; religious poem or song; circular thing; braid, chain (?); stall for study or writing; writing table”), from Old French carole (“round dance with singing”). The further etymology is uncertain; the following possibilities have been suggested: * From Old Italian carola, or directly from its etymon Medieval Latin choraula, a variant of choraulēs (“flute player accompanying a chorus dance”), from Ancient Greek χοραυλής (khoraulḗs, “one who accompanies a chorus on the flute”), from χορός (khorós, “choir; dance”) + αὐλός (aulós, “flute”). * From Latin corōlla (“little crown, coronet; small chaplet, garland, or wreath”), from corōna (“chaplet, garland, wreath”) + -la (diminutive suffix). Corōna is borrowed from Ancient Greek κορώνη (korṓnē, “type of crown; curved object (door handle, tip of a bow, stern of a ship, etc.)”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to turn, bend”). Compare chorus, terpsichorean. Noun sense 3 (“small closet or enclosure”) may refer to the fact that the item encloses or surrounds the person using it. The verb is derived from Middle English carolen (“to dance and/or sing in a round dance; to sing for (dancers in a round dance); (figurative) to spend time noisily or unprofitably”), from Old French caroler (“to sing”), from carole (noun) (see above) + -er (a variant of -ier (suffix forming infinitives of first-conjugation verbs)).

Translations