Hogmanay

Hogmanay \hog-muh-NEY\ , noun;
1. A gift given on New Year's Eve
proper noun;
1. New Year's Eve in Scotland

This word has so many variations that it's hard to nail down exactly where it came from. It is attested in English in 1443 as hagnonayse so technically it entered Middle English from Middle French. The Middle French forms include auguilanleu, haguirenleu, haguimenlo, aguilanleu, aguiloneu, aguillenneu, aguillanneuf, and more. The aguillanneuf form survived into Modern French, but its current usage is as Cris de Paris, or an expression used by hawkers at auction times to get the attention of potential customers. As a Cris de Paris the word takes a variety of forms, mostly because it is hollered rather than written down.

Here's to a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2011 to all you linguaphiles out there:
Happy New Years! 新年快乐! Bonne Année!  أجمل التهاني بمناسبة الميلاد و حلول السنة الجديدة Gutes Neues Jahr! Ĝojan Kristnaskon kaj feliĉan novan jaron! Bliain úr faoi shéan is faoi mhaise duit! 新年おめでとうございます! QISmaS botIvjaj 'ej DIS chu' botIvjaj! С Рождеством Христовым! ༄༅།།ལོ་གསར་ལ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས་ཞུ།! Ngikufisela uKhisimusi oMuhle noNyaka oMusha oNempumelelo!

* English, Mandarin Chinese, French, Arabic, German, Esperanto, Irish, Japanese, Klingon, Russian, Tibetan, Zulu - feel free to correct me if any of these are wrong!

Today's word and the first definition were both taken from Dictionary.com's 'Word of the Day' for Friday, December 31
Etymologies come from the Oxford English Dictionary and/or Etymonline.com