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The Origin of "X"mas
Nov. 27th, 2006 06:46 pmIts not what you think.
Summarized:
Christ has for a thousand years been abbreviated with an “X”, which is not the Roman letter “eks”, but the Greek leter “chi,” standing for the first letter of Christ when written in Greek as “christos”. The use of Xmas for “christmas” is first found in the sixteenth century, in the slightly expanded spelling X’temmas; the Xmas form was in use by the eighteenth century. The assumption that the abbreviation is somehow “weak” or “irreligious” since it “removes the Christ from ”Christmas“ is a thoroughly modern idea. We should not that Xmas and other X abbreviations were usually found in the writings of educated people who knew their Greek.
So the next time someone gets all irate about calling it Xmas versus Christmas, just remind them that their righteous indigniation is matched only by their righteous ignorance.
p.s.
Sir Isaasc Newton, who gaves us the theory of gravity, was also born on Dec. 25th. So if you don’t give a rats ass about Christmas, have a beer in honor of him explaining why the planet sucks ;-)
Summarized:
Christ has for a thousand years been abbreviated with an “X”, which is not the Roman letter “eks”, but the Greek leter “chi,” standing for the first letter of Christ when written in Greek as “christos”. The use of Xmas for “christmas” is first found in the sixteenth century, in the slightly expanded spelling X’temmas; the Xmas form was in use by the eighteenth century. The assumption that the abbreviation is somehow “weak” or “irreligious” since it “removes the Christ from ”Christmas“ is a thoroughly modern idea. We should not that Xmas and other X abbreviations were usually found in the writings of educated people who knew their Greek.
So the next time someone gets all irate about calling it Xmas versus Christmas, just remind them that their righteous indigniation is matched only by their righteous ignorance.
p.s.
Sir Isaasc Newton, who gaves us the theory of gravity, was also born on Dec. 25th. So if you don’t give a rats ass about Christmas, have a beer in honor of him explaining why the planet sucks ;-)
