Isn’t “Santa” a Spanish word for “saint”, as in Santa Barbara? And, (I’m WAGing) isn’t Claus actually a German word? Does anyone know the etimology here? Unless Claus is Spanish for Nicholas, as is St. Nich…? - Jinx 
frozti ra snaman
is this russian, as in rednow yob dna nibor?
merry christmas old chap:cool:
MrCrow, you’re in a silly mood this morning…nipping too much egg nog last night, are we? -Jinx
According to the OED, Santa Claus comes from the Dutch:
The Spanish “santa” is a cognate, though it may have influenced the spelling.
i thought you brilliantly answered your own post
even i could not have done that…:rolleyes: maybe:eek:
Well, you know what they say…never ask a question to which you don’t already know the answer. As if that logic makes any sense at all! :rolleyes:
I suppose you already knew Santa was Dutch (per RealityChuck’s post), but you were too bashful to share this with us. Granted, Santa’s been around awhile, so this is probably well known. But,
like Yingling, it sure don’t sound German or Dutch, too me! (I guess Jack Nicholson will have to change his name to Jack Claussen, then, right?) All posted in good fun…
Personally, I think Santa Clause (sic) should hang out in Santa Phrase, NM on the off-season! 
- Jinx
Minor point re: Reality Chuck’s answer - I’ve always thought it was pronounced Sinterklaas in Dutch … more or less as one word. This usage spread from the New Amsterdam area in pre-Revolutionary times to English speakers. “Santa Claus”, then, is a corruption of Sinterklaas.
Perhaps that is a late-18th century Dutch pronounciation? Coldfire, do Dutch children still wait for Sinterklaas on Christmas Eve, or is it Sint/Sante Klaas?
Santa is indeed a Spanish word for saint or holy. It’s the feminine form. The masculine for saint is San. So, Santa Barbara, San Felipe. Santa Fe is holy faith; fe happens to be a feminine noun.
Obviously it has nothing to do with Santa Claus, who comes from St. Nicholas by way of Dutch.
Though the resemblance of Santa Claus to Spanish female saints’ names in completely coincidental, it still reminds me of the last Odd Couple movie from Neil Simon. In the movie, Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau meet up in California for their children’s wedding.
I enjoyed it well enough, but Simon consistently bastardized and mangled California place names, using “Santa” with masculine names and “San” with feminine ones. I can’t believe he was so obtuse so it must have been intentional. I thought it a little bit patronizing.
Saint Nicholas would be Sint Niklaas, properly, but I’d bet that small excitable children would run it togather (think of the American kids’ “Sandy-caws”)-- maybe the origin of the other spelling.
The train from Antwerp to Bruges runs through a town named Sint Niklaas, and whenever the conductor announces the approach of the station he runs it together so it that the syllabic stress falls exactly in the same spots as the American pronounciation of Santa Claus (SINnicKLAas: SANtaCLaus) and it always me sit up straight for a minute and smile.
Hello!
My first posting on these boards… 
(“RealityChuck” cause me to fleetingly think “RealityClaus”… ?)
The Dutch “Sinterklaas” was the origin that sprang to my mind too.
For some reason, I thought Sinder was like Cinder?
(After all, he does come down the chimney, yes?)
Ran “Saint” through an English/Dutch translator but the word match was “Heilige” - so no joy there.
“Sinter” from Dutch to English produced nothing either, but “sint” expanded to “absintlikeur” - absinthe…
(So that’s why I’ve been seeing strange stuff!)
Hey.
'Sintli Keurs… Santa Claus…
yes?