wassail

Meaning

Noun

1. A toast to health, usually on a festive occasion.
2. The beverage served during a wassail, especially one made of ale or wine flavoured with spices, sugar, roasted apples, etc.
3. Revelry.
4. A festive or drinking song or glee.

Verb

1. To toast, to drink to the health of another.
2. To drink wassail.
3. To go from house to house at Christmastime, singing carols.

Synonyms

toast

carousal

salute

pledge

revel

drink

🥤

whoop it up

spree

racket

make happy

make merry

make whoopie

jollify

shindig

shindy

merrymaking

carouse

conviviality

feast

festivity

frisk

jamboree

jollification

junket

junketing

lark

banquet

revelry

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈwɑseɪl/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: wassail

In summary

From Middle English wassail, from Old Norse ves heill (“be healthy!”), from the imperative of vesa (“to be”) + heill (“healthy”). The earliest documented use of the term is from the first part of the 12th century CE, in Geoffroy of Monmounth's Historia Regum Britanniae (see page's citations).