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X plain

Cardinal Slin

New member
Just curious if there is no X in Christmas, why is an abbreviation for Christmas Xmas and not Cmas?

I'm sure there is a perfectly reasonable Fplanation.
 
It isn't an "X." That's the Greek letter "chi" which is pronounced about like "ch" was in Old English ... which is to say, about how it's pronounced in German today, or in a few imported words, like "Christ" or "Christmas," for example.

"X" (as in chi) was used as an abbreviation for Christ from early times, perhaps initially as a camouflage for the religion. It was the first letter of the word Christos (meaning "the anointed one," e.g., the Messiah) and fortuitously was cross-shaped, so there seemed to be some symbolism or double meaning. It's been used as a scholarly and not-so-scholarly abbreviation since.

At least thats what I found out -
 
It isn't an "X." That's the Greek letter "chi" which is pronounced about like "ch" was in Old English ... which is to say, about how it's pronounced in German today, or in a few imported words, like "Christ" or "Christmas," for example.

"X" (as in chi) was used as an abbreviation for Christ from early times, perhaps initially as a camouflage for the religion. It was the first letter of the word Christos (meaning "the anointed one," e.g., the Messiah) and fortuitously was cross-shaped, so there seemed to be some symbolism or double meaning. It's been used as a scholarly and not-so-scholarly abbreviation since.

At least thats what I found out -
Wikipedia is a good thing, eh?
 
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