English Explanatory Dictionary

Christingle

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A small Christmas gift for children symbolizing Jesus Christ as the “light” of the world. A typical modern Christingle is made of an orange with sweets skewered into it, a candle inserted into the top, and a red ribbon wrapped round it.
  2. A church service for children incorporating Christingles, usually held during Advent.

Pronunciation

/ˈkɹɪstɪŋɡ(ə)l/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Christingle.wav

Word forms

Christingle Christingles

Etymology

Uncertain; according to the Oxford English Dictionary, possibly from dialectal German Christkindl, Christkindle (“the Christ child, believed to deliver presents to children on Christmas Eve; the presents so brought”), from Christ (“Christ”) + Kindl, Kindle (dialectal diminutive of Kind (“child”)). The -ingle portion of the word may be a corruption of Kris Kringle (“Santa Claus”) (also derived from German Christkindl, Christ Kinde) among the German community in the United States.

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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