Do you find someone typing Xtian or Xmas rather than Christian or Christmas, offensive?

Question

And before you say yes if you do find it offensive, are you aware of what it means? I'm just curious.

I hate any form of chat speak or appreciations, so I only ever type Xtian when I don't have enough space left.

omg! *kicks stupid mozilla spellcheck*

lol I meant abbreviations but mozilla said I spelled it wrong and changed it to appreciations lol.

Answer 1

Of course not. I'm a Christian, and learned as a child in Christian school that the X is a very ancient abbreviation for Christ, and it was used by Christians themselves. The X stands for the Greek letter Chi, and the idea that it's somehow "crossing out Christ" is a very modern notion, and one without any basis in reality.

Answer 2

I don't understand people who get offended, because there is a long, long tradition of using the Greek letters XP or Xt as an abbreviation for the name of Christ. I think people must just not know the linguistic history behind it, so they think it's an effort to secularize something which they believe to be sacred. I, myself, when I was younger (and I mean a lot younger, like middle school) found it offensive to abbreviate things that way. When I was in high school, I knew, and later dated, a Greek guy, who was Greek Orthodox. They spoke Greek in his home, as his parents emigrated here in the late 50s. He was the one who explained it to me, and once he had pointed me in the right direction, I was able to research it for myself.

Don't worry overly much about the people who get upset about it. They don't know that it is a valid way to spell those words, or that it has a history that's most likely 1000 or more years old.

Answer 3

I have never seen Xtian didn't know it existed. How ever my great aunt who was Jewish would send my Christmas cards when I was a kid with Merry Xmas in her hand writing. Since Xmas isn't really have anything to do with Christ originally and was the birthday of a false "god" Greek or roman ( I don't recall right now) I am not offended at all as long as you give me a present. Or at least a card I mean come on we must remember the reason for the season. At least now days.

Answer 4

It is not chat speak. It is a time-honored representation of Christ's name.
People sometimes think it's a modern invention, that it takes the "Christ" out of Christmas, that it makes Christmas just another commercial gimmick.
In fact, the Greek letter χ (chi or pronounced "ks," and the first letter in the Greek word for "Christ") has been used to represent "Christ" for more than a thousand years.
So no, i don't find it offensive, but at the same time i don't use it, out of consideration for the people who do

Answer 5

People get all pissy when others type "xtian". It's not a way of "taking Christ out of language". He's still there.

"In ancient Christian art χ and χρ are abbreviations for Christ's name.[3] In many manuscripts of the New Testament and icons, X is an abbreviation for Christos, as is XC (the first and last letters in Greek, using the lunate sigma); compare IC for Jesus in Greek. The Oxford English Dictionary documents the use of this abbreviation back to 1551, 50 years before the first English colonists arrived in North America and 60 years before the King James Version of the Bible was completed. At the same time, Xian and Xianity were in frequent use as abbreviations of "Christian" and "Christianity"; and nowadays still are sometimes so used, but much less than "Xmas".

Answer 6

Although I think it's meant as a slight, I'm not offended. I find it somewhat amusing that a person cannot type four or five more letters. And what about the abbreviation "G-d?" You can just as easily type "o" as "-". It doesn't even save time or space.

Answer 7

Not at all.
And most people who choose to type Xmas only do it because it's easier - they don't mean anything by it.
I've never heard of anybody typing Xtian, though. I think it'd be silly if people typed Xtian/Xmas as a way to offend someone. It's a pretty lame way to rebel, if you ask me.

Answer 8

relies upon on reason. Xtian and yule could be utilized by potential of persons who do no longer extremely have faith or care to correctly known the Christ prefix. this isn't the case. The "-mas" area is from the Latin-derived old English be conscious for Mass,[a million] mutually as the "X" comes from the Greek letter Chi, that's the 1st letter of the Greek be conscious ??????? which comes into English as "Christ."

Answer 9

I can't say that it is offensive to me that people shorten the word by using X. I retired from AT&T and all we used were acronyms. I personally spell out Christ because there is nothing drivethru about Him. Slow down a bit, spend some time with Him and build a relationship with Him. Then you won't want to shorten anything about Him

Answer 10

No because the X (chi) was the first letter for the title "Christ". Xpistos.... X is simply the abbreviated form of Christ. In the way that Abe is the abbreviation of Abraham, or Rob is the short version of Robert, X is the short version for Christ.