Christmastide is a compound of Christmas (from Old English Crīstes mæsse, 'Christ's mass') + tide (Old English tīd, 'time, season'). The historical trail runs through tīd in Old English. Morphologically, christmastide is transparent: it is a compound of Christmas (from Old English Crīstes mæsse, 'Christ's mass') + tide (Old English tīd, 'time, season'). Used as a noun, christmastide now means "the festive season extending from Christmas through Epiphany", so the present definition can be read against the older forms and meanings. The same lexical family is also visible in related forms such as christmas, yuletide, and eventide. The modern word remains analyzable through its parts, which makes the semantic connection unusually direct.