Santa Claus

English
A Japanese depiction of Santa Claus circa 1914.

Alternative forms

Etymology

Borrowed from Dutch Sinterklaas (“Saint Nicholas”).

Pronunciation
  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈsæn.təˌklɔːz/
  • Audio (UK)(file)
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈsæn.təˌklɑz/, /ˈsæn.təˌklɔz/
  • (General Australian) IPA(key): /ˈsæːn.təˌkloːz/

Proper noun

Santa Claus (plural Santa Clauses)

  1. (folklore) A figure said to bring presents to people (especially children) at Christmas time.
    Synonyms: Father Christmas, Kris Kringle, Saint Claus, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Santa
    • 1773 December 26, New York Gazette, p. 3:
      Last Monday the Anniversary of St. Nicholas, otherwise called St. A Claus, was celebrated at Protestant-Hall.
    • 1808 January 25, Salmagundi, p. 407:
      The noted St. Nicholas, vulgarly called Santaclaus—of all the saints in the kalendar the most venerated by true hollanders, and their unsophisticated descendants.
    • 1828 November, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, letter to his mother from Italy:
      Here, too, the winter festivals are just commencing; and the toy-shops are full of dolls and gew-gaws for the Bifana, who acts here the same comedy for children that Santiclaus does in America.
    • 1937 August, Lawrence Martin, "The Odyssey of a Bogeyman", Esquire, Vol. 8, No. 2, p. 39:
      This is one of the developments Karl Marx failed to predict. Had he foreseen it he might have expired in guffaws, rolling in the aisle of the British Museum Library amid the notes for Das Kapital, that bearded Santa Claus of the revolution who slipped the unwanted gift of communism down the world's chimneys.
    • 1980, Douglas Day Stewart, The Blue Lagoon:
      Emmeline: Oh Richard, you can't know everything. Only God knows everything.
      Richard: God—He can't find us any better than Santa Claus.
    • 2005, Gerry Bowler, “Santa the Adman”, in Santa Claus: A Biography, McClelland & Stewart, →ISBN, page 142:
      By 1900, department-store Santa Clauses were common – lodged in grottoes, cottages, and workshops or on thrones, they presided over a never-ending stream of children.
  2. (by extension) A generous source of free gifts or benefits.
    • 1978, Henry Grayson, Clemens A. Loew, Changing approaches to the psychotherapies, page 314:
      I then probe as to whether he is waiting for some Santa Claus to make him well, strong, and happy, or whether he is waiting for rigor mortis to deliver him from his earthly troubles.
  3. A town in Spencer County, Indiana. Original name: Santa Fe.
  4. A city in Georgia, United States.
  5. A ghost town in Arizona.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

Catalan

Pronunciation

Proper noun

Santa Claus m

  1. Santa Claus
    Synonyms: Pare Nadal, Pare Noel
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