Merriam-Webster Is As Confused By Santa’s Reindeer Names As We Are – HuffPost

January 30, 2024 ndowd

Senior Reporter, HuffPost
The folks behind the Merriam-Webster dictionary apparently want to have some words with Santa Claus ― mostly about the names he gave some of his reindeer.
The dictionary asked some hard yet hilarious questions Tuesday about Santa’s choices for reindeer monikers.
Posting on X (or, as virtually everyone still calls it, Twitter), Merriam-Webster conceded that some of the animals’ names make sense.
There’s “Dasher,” which means “one that dashes”; “Dancer,” which is “one that dances”; and “Prancer,” which means “one that walks or moves in a spirited manner.” Fine. Reindeer might reasonably do all three of these things.
Rudolph gets all the love so let’s talk about the names of Santa’s other reindeer.

Ok, those three are easy to understand.
But some confusion crept in with “Vixen,” a word that Merriam-Webster noted can mean “a female fox,” “a shrewish, ill-tempered woman” or “a sexually attractive woman.”
“Ummm, what’s going on here, Santa?” Merriam-Webster’s social media person asked, speaking for all of us.
Now, we get to ‘Vixen.’ ‘vixen’ is a noun and has 3 senses.

1. a female fox
2. a shrewish, ill-tempered woman
3. a sexually attractive woman

Ummm, what’s going on here, Santa?
Merriam-Webster found it slightly easier to understand why Santa might name a magical reindeer Comet: “Both fly… so sure, why not?”
comet | noun | a celestial body that appears as a fuzzy head usually surrounding a bright nucleus, that has a usually highly eccentric orbit, that consists primarily of ice and dust, and that often develops one or more long tails when near the sun

Both fly… so sure, why not?
But Cupid’s name caused more head-scratching for Merriam-Webster, since it’s also the name of the Roman god of erotic love.
“We’re kind of drifting back into ‘Vixen-territory,’” the tweet noted.
Ok, we’re kind of drifting back into ‘Vixen-territory’ with ‘Cupid.’

Cupid | noun | the Roman god of erotic love

Ho-ho-hold on a minute…
The dictionary had no notes for the final two reindeer, Donner and Blitzen, since their names are based on the Dutch words for “thunder” and “lightning,” which is pretty metal.
“We’ve always thought these two were the bad boys of the sleigh,” Merriam-Webster tweeted.
Lastly, we get to ‘Donner’ and ‘Blitzen.’

‘Donner’ was originally ‘Donder’ which is Standard Dutch meaning “thunder.”

‘Blitzen’ comes from the Standard Dutch ‘bliksem,’ which means “lightning.”

We’ve always thought these two were the bad boys of the sleigh.
The names of the eight main reindeer first appeared in the 1823 poem “A Visit From St. Nicholas,” aka “’Twas The Night Before Christmas” ― so maybe Merriam-Webster is better off directing its questions to the estate of author Clement Clarke Moore.
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