surname, early 13c., probably an agent noun from walk (v.) in the sense "to full cloth." preserves the cloth-fulling sense (walker with this meaning is attested from c. 1300). "Walker" or "Hookey Walker" was a common slang retort of incredulity in early and mid-19c. London, for which "Various problematic explanations have been offered" [Century Dictionary].
"Is it?" said Scrooge. "Go and buy it."
"Walk-ER!" exclaimed the boy.
"No, no," said Scrooge. "I am in earnest" (etc.)
[Dickens, "A Christmas Carol"]
"next in order after the eleventh; an ordinal numeral; being one of twelve equal parts into which a whole is regarded as divided;" late 14c., with -th (1), altering Middle English twelfte, from Old English twelfta, from twelf (see twelve). The earlier form is cognate with Old Norse tolfti, Danish tolvte, Old Frisian twelefta, Dutch twaalfde, Old High German zwelifto, German zwölfte .
As a noun meaning "a twelfth part," from 1550s. Twelfth Night is Old English twelftan niht "Twelfth Night," the eve of Epiphany, which comes twelve days after Christmas, formerly an occasion of social rites and a time of merrymaking.
1610s, "mime actor, one who expresses meaning by action, not words," from Latin pantomimus "mime, dancer," from Greek pantomimos "actor," literally "imitator of all," from panto- (genitive of pan) "all" (see pan-) + mimos "imitator" (see mime (n.)).
The original sense is archaic or obsolete. The meaning "drama or play without words," in which the plot is expressed by mute gestures, is recorded by 1735. The English dramatic performances so called, usually produced at Christmas and with words and songs and stock characters, are attested by this name from 1739; said to have originated c. 1717. Related: Pantomimic; pantomimical.
mid-15c., "day that begins a quarter of the year," designated as days when rents were paid and contracts and leases began or expired, from quarter (n.1). They were, in England, Lady day (March 25), Midsummer day (June 24), Michaelmas day (Sept. 29), and Christmas day (Dec. 25); in Scotland, keeping closer to the pre-Christian Celtic calendar, they were Candlemas (Feb. 2), Whitsunday (May 15), Lammas (Aug. 1), and Martinmas (Nov. 11). Quarter in the sense "period of three months; one of the four divisions of a year" is recorded from late 14c. Related: Quarter days.
"Christmas manger scene," 1792, from French crèche, from Old French cresche, creche"crib, manger, stall" (13c.), ultimately from Frankish or some other Germanic source; compare Old High German kripja, Old English cribb (see crib (n.)). Also "a public nursery for infants where they are cared for while their mothers are at work" (1854).
A modern reborrowing of a word that had been in Middle English as cracche, crecche, criche "a manger, a place for feeding domestic animals" (mid-13c.), from Old French creche. Wyclif (1382) has cracche (Luke ii.7) where Tyndale (1526) uses manger.
European plant growing parasitically on certain trees, Old English mistiltan, from mistel "mistletoe" (see missel) + tan "twig," from Proto-Germanic *tainan "twig" (source also of Old Saxon and Old Frisian ten, Old Norse teinn, Dutch teen, Old High German zein, Gothic tains "twig"). Similar formation in Old Norse mistilteinn, Norwegian misteltein, Danish mistelten.
Venerated by the Druids, especially when found growing on the oak, which it seldom does; the custom of hanging it at Christmas and kissing under it is mentioned by Washington Irving. The alteration of the ending according to Century Dictionary is perhaps from a mistaking of the final -n for a plural suffix after tan fell from use as a separate word, but OED finds it a natural evolution in West Saxon based on stress.
late 15c., "living creature killed and offered as a sacrifice to a deity or supernatural power, or in the performance of a religious rite;" from Latin victima "sacrificial animal; person or animal killed as a sacrifice," a word of uncertain origin. Perhaps related to vicis "turn, occasion" (as in vicarious), if the notion is an "exchange" with the gods. Perhaps distantly connected to Old English wig "idol," Gothic weihs "holy," German weihen "consecrate" (compare Weihnachten "Christmas") on notion of "a consecrated animal."
Sense of "person who is hurt, tortured, or killed by another" is recorded from 1650s; meaning "person oppressed by some power or situation, person ruined or greatly injured or made to suffer in the pursuit of an object, or for the gratification of a passion or infatuation, or from disease or disaster" is from 1718. Weaker sense of "person taken advantage of, one who is cheated or duped" is recorded from 1781.
