'Tis the season! When did people stop saying 'tis anyway?
'Tis, a part of the Christmas holiday lexicon, is just one of many words that has evolved over the centuries.聽
'Tis, a part of the Christmas holiday lexicon, is just one of many words that has evolved over the centuries.聽
鈥楾is the season!
That鈥檚 the theme of Wednesday's Google Doodle, a holiday-themed illustrated logo.
Wednesday鈥檚 Google doodle is a series of brightly colored, doll-like patterns by Doodle artist Robinson Wood that, as Google describes it, 鈥渨ere inspired by papercraft models and cutouts.鈥�
鈥溾�楾is the season鈥� happens to be both the theme of the doodle and a line in the traditional Christmas carol, 鈥淒eck the Halls,鈥� which has its origins in an 18th-century Welsh song, 鈥淣os Galan,鈥� that actually celebrates the New Year.
But what鈥檚 the origin of the word 鈥� 鈥榯is鈥� and why did we stop saying it more than once a year? The answer is fascinating and complicated.
鈥楾is, a contraction of "it is," was first used in 1555, according to Merriam-Webster. Its popularity peaked around 1709 or 1710, according to Google鈥檚 Ngram Viewer, a database that tracks the usage of words in English-language books. Over the ensuing centuries, it has fallen out of favor. The past tense of 鈥榯is, 鈥榯was, follows the same pattern.
One of the largest influences on modern American Christmas traditions also uses an archaic contraction: Clement Clarke Moore鈥檚 poem 鈥溾�楾was the Night Before Christmas,鈥� which was known at the time as 鈥淎 Visit from St. Nicholas.鈥�
In the poem, the 鈥渏olly old elf鈥� that we know today as Santa Claus is still referred to by his traditional name of 鈥淪t. Nicholas鈥� or 鈥淪t. Nick,鈥� a reference that recalls the Old World traditions of celebrating St. Nicholas鈥檚 feast day that would have been familiar to many readers in this era.
The " 鈥榯was" of the title may also be a reference to the past or traditions and customs that are no longer commonly used: by 1822, when the poem was first written, 鈥� 鈥榯was鈥� had fallen out of common usage, possibly making it a quaint signifier to readers.
Dr. Moore鈥檚 authorship of the poem has been contested by some scholars who suggest that his position as a teacher and scholar of Hebrew does not easily lend itself to writing a warm children鈥檚 holiday poem.
In 2000, Dr. Don Foster, an English professor at Vassar College who studies authorial attribution, concluded that Henry Livingston, Jr., a judge and native of Poughkeepsie, New York, wrote the 鈥淰isit鈥� poem. He made his findings by studying certain turns of phrase and other clues in the poem鈥檚 syntax, and comparing them to other poems that Mr. Livingston had written. 聽聽