Word Origin Summary

Christmas is attested in English. Follow the ancestry chain below to trace where this term came from and how it branched into later descendants.

Ancestry Chain

1. Cristes mæsseEnglishinherited from
2. CristemasseMiddle Englishinherited from

Descendants and Related Terms

• Kirisimas

  Chuukese · borrowed from

• Christmasøya

  Norwegian Bokmål · borrowed from

• krismas

  Cebuano · borrowed from

• Krismasi

  Swahili · borrowed from

• kozismas

  Yami · derived from

• Kiritimati

  Gilbertese · borrowed from

• கிறிஸ்துமஸ்

  Tamil · borrowed from

• คริสต์มาส

  Thai · borrowed from

What You Can Explore

• 🗺️Geographic migration map — see where this word traveled
• 🌳Language family tree — trace connections across related languages
• 📅Historical timeline — when the word entered different languages
• 🔤Cognates — related words in other languages sharing the same root