noel

plural noels · alternative noël · alternative nowell · alternative nowel

1. A kind of hymn, or canticle, of mediaeval origin, sung in honor of the birth of Christ; a Christmas carol.

   The first Nowell the Angel did say / Was to three poor Shepherds in the fields as they lay[…]

   1833, William Sandys, Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern, page 74

alternative noël · alternative nowell · alternative nowel

1. archaicA wish or expression of commemoration of Christmas.

   And may all my enemies go to hell! / Noël! Noël! Noël! Noël!

   1911, Hilaire Belloc, The Four Men: A Farrago, page 243

alternative Noël · alternative noël · alternative noel · alternative Noyal

1. datedliteraryChristmas.

alternative Noël · alternative noël · alternative noel · alternative Noyal

1. A male given name from French.

   2 more examples

   When Noel came, noisily bursting through the back door with buckets of cleansers and sponges, I introduced myself. "Just call me Noelle," he said of himself. "When I was little they used to call me Noel, Noel, the toilet bowl. Although now I have thought of painting that on the side of my van. It might be good for business? I don't know."

   2009, Lorrie Moore, A Gate at the Stairs, Faber and Faber, →ISBN, page 162

   Former Harvard professor and communist Noel Ignatiev, who co-founded the New Abolitionist Society and founded a journal called Race Traitor, named after a book he coauthored in the mid-1990s, famously advocated for the complete abolition of the white race […] Note a certain coyness about whether this destruction refers to only a white race category or to all white-skinned people.

   2024 April 11, Wade Miller, “Policy Brief: The Great Replacement in Theory and Practice”, in Center for Renewing America, archived from the original on 04 Aug 2024

2. A female given name from French.
3. A surname originating as a patronymic.
4. A city in McDonald County, Missouri, United States.

   Synonyms: Christmas City

5. A community in East Hants municipality, Hants County, Nova Scotia, Canada.

1. abbreviationacronymAcronym of no observed effect level.