Episode 3 Vocabulary: Christmas Traditions

This week's podcast focused on Christmas traditions from across the world. Below are some words you may not recognise.

Level 1 - key words

• Greenery - grass, trees and other plants

• Dome - a shape that is a half-sphere

• Decor - furniture or decorations in a building

• Trinkets - small items, often with sentimental value, e.g. souvenirs, jewellery, plates, collectibles

• DIY - stands for 'do-it-yourself'. Used to refer to furniture or other projects that give you the materials and instructions to make something.

• Log - the wooden part of a tree, once it is chopped down. Often used in fires.

• Meme - online jokes or images that are widely known and referenced

• Coal - black rocks used in fires and given to naughty children at Christmas

• Windowsill - the part of the window that sticks out at the bottom

Level 2 - general phrases

• To touch on - to mention

• Light-hearted - not serious, not negative

• To make sense - if something makes sense, it means you understand it

• Ingrained - deeply embedded into something

• Connotation - the feelings or associations of something. E.g certain things have negative connotations

• Undocumented - not documented, there is no evidence of something

• I mean... - a common filler phrase at the beginning of a sentence

• To diverge - to change, to separate from something. Often one thing diverges into two

• Prominent - well-known, famous or 'main'

Level 3 - complex, slang or rare words

• To nibble - to take small bites (of food)

• -wise - a suffix added to mean 'relating to' or 'based upon'. For example "looks-wise he's okay, but his personality is bad"

• Take with a grain of salt - used to imply that information may not necessarily be 100% true or accurate when sharing that information

• In the same vein - used when mentioning something similar or related to the previous topic

• To be privy to something - to know something that not everyone knows

• National consciousness - the shared knowledge or focus of a country

• Cornerstone - if something is the cornerstone of something else, it is the basis for that thing. It plays an important role in that thing being possible or existing. E.g football is the cornerstone of British society.

• Notoriety - when something is well-known for bad reasons, it is notorious.