Mari Lwyd

/meri lʊid/

proper noun

A Welsh winter holiday custom involving wassailing with a horse's skull carried by a person hidden under a sheet.

OriginWelsh Mari Lwyd →
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Meanings

proper noun
  1. A Welsh winter holiday custom involving wassailing with a horse's skull carried by a person hidden under a sheet.
    1. broadlywith definite articleThe name of the character itself.

Origin

  1. WelshMari Lwyd
  2. EnglishMari Lwyd

Borrowed from Welsh Mari Lwyd, with soft mutation (after a feminine noun) of llwyd (“grey”). The first part may be a form of the name Mary or a use of the English word mare. See Wikipedia for fuller discussion of these and other possibilities. In Welsh the name is used with the definite article and consequent soft mutation, y Fari Lwyd.

More words from Welsh

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

Mari Lwyd. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Mari%20Lwyd

MLA

“Mari Lwyd.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Mari%20Lwyd. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Mari Lwyd,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Mari%20Lwyd.

Source: Mari Lwyd on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.