(piano music) 

Hello, and welcome to Your Greek Word On A Sunday, a weekly, bite-size podcast for anyone curious on language, etymology and connections. I am your host, Emmanuela Lia and wherever you are in the world, if you want to entertain your brain for a few minutes, this is the podcast for you. Let's Go! 

Merry Christmas to those celebrating and I hope you’ll have a few restful days those of you who don’t. I was as surprised as you’ll be to find out that this is a combination of Greek words but my hunch was proven right! You see the modern Greek word is slightly different so I never thought to look, until now!  In Ancient Greece one of the most popular breads was one made from barley, oil and sometimes milk . It was called Μάζα (maza) and it looked like a lump of dough. It was named after the infinitive Μασσείν meaning 'to knead by hand'. The word was also used in medicine and  alchemy to describe a blend of substances or elements very close together and that, expanded into describing crowds. Years went by and one place you’d find so many people together was a church. In Latin it came as 'Massa' and dropped the final ‘a’ when the French adopted the word in the 11th century as ‘Μasse’. It came to English two centuries later and meant 'an irregular shaped lump' or a 'crowd'. Now put that on the side. In Hebrew god’s son is the messiah meaning ‘the anointed one’ and that later on was given as a name to Jesus of Nazareth. in Greek, that translates as Χριστός (Christos) and that came to Latin as 'Christus'. Now put the two together and you have a crowd celebrating the anointed one. ΧΡΙΣΤΟΥΓΕΝΝΑ/CHRISTMAS

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