I intend to prove that I am not one to stand uncorrected. Which is to say, I was wrong. Quite wrong!
Trimming, from the online dictionary of etymology: "neaten by cutting" dates to 1530, whereas "to decorate, to adorn" is from 1547. So much for my assumption that it was a neologism, a vulgar americanism!
Yours, in error, but corrected,
N.
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1 comment:
That is interesting but surely what is more interesting is why Americans trim a tree rather than decorate it. I am pretty sure that nobody on either side of the Atlantic was doing either in 1530. So why was trim adopted as the verb of choice and what is the first example of use in relation to American Christmas trees? I am holding to my theory.
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