Why is christmas sometimes referred to as Xmas?

Question

Who thought of that? It seems kind of stupid to me!

Answer 1

The letter Greek letter chi, which closely resembles the letter X, is the first letter in "Christ" written in Greek (Χριστος). This is where it comes from. It has nothing to do with the letter X resembling a cross, as many people believe, nor does it have anything to do with people "trying to take Christ out of Christmas".

Answer 2

by the fifteenth century Xmas emerged as a widely used symbol for Christmas. In 1436 Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press with moveable type. In the early days of printing typesetting was done by hand and was very tedious and expensive. As a result, abbreviations were common. In religious publications, the church began to use the abbreviation C for the word "Christ" to cut down on the cost of the books and pamphlets. From there, the abbreviation moved into general use in newspapers and other publications, and "Xmas" became an accepted way of printing "Christmas" (along with the abbreviations Xian and Xianity). Even Webster’s dictionary acknowledges that the abbreviation Xmas was in common use by the middle of the sixteenth century.

Answer 3

X is the Greek letter Chi, which is the first letter of Christ, so it's just an abbreviation. The letter Chi/X was often used as a symbol of Christ, because it had the double meaning of Christ as well as the Cross. I like Xmas -- I often use Xian as an abbreviation for Christian when doing Bible study notes. I know some people think of it as a modern and irreligious invention, but it isn't.

Answer 4

It is because the name Christ in Greek begins with the letter Chi which looks exactly like an X. X became a widely used abbreviation for Christ throughout Christendom.

Xmas is therefore an abbreviation for Christmas. It means exactly the same and should be pronounced exactly the same - Christmas.

Answer 5

Lazy people who can't spell the full Christmas spells is like Xmas. Thats my guess x

Answer 6

From the link:
"The X in Xmas is actually the greek letter Chi, which was a common abbreviation of Kristos, Christ's name. (Using the roman alphabet, I've also seen it written Xpistos. In greek, I believe that would be Χριστος.)"

Answer 7

The X is Greek for Christ. Xmas is properly pronounced Christmas.

The X was a recognition signal bewtween Christians who were persecuted in the early days of Christianity. It means Christ.

Answer 8

it is stupid, but it's also a sign of the times. i find it offensive, it's taking Christ out of Christmas. we Christians are celebrating the fact our Saviour was born of humanity; so many others are just celebrating a binge-fess. it's sad as well as stupid, but there you go! have a happy Christmas, diane.

Answer 9

"Xmas" and "X-mas" are common abbreviations of the word "Christmas". They are sometimes pronounced "eksmas", but they, and variants such as "Xtemass", originated as handwriting abbreviations for the pronunciation "Christmas". The "-mas" part came from the Latin-derived Old English word for "mass". [1]

This abbreviation is widely used but not universally accepted. Many do not know about its antiquity and believe it to be of commercial origin and thus demeaning to Christ, whilst others find it a helpful abbreviation.

Contents [hide]
1 Usage of X for Christ
2 In popular culture
3 See also
4 References
5 External links



[edit] Usage of X for Christ
The word "Christ" and its compounds, including "Christmas", have been abbreviated for at least the past 1,000 years, long before the modern "Xmas" was commonly used. "Christ" was often written as "XP" or "Xt"; there are references in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as far back as 1021 AD. This X and P arose as the uppercase forms of the Greek letters χ and ρ), used in ancient abbreviations for Χριστος (Greek for "Christ"), and are still widely seen in many Eastern Orthodox icons depicting Jesus Christ. The labarum, an amalgamation of the two Greek letters rendered as ☧, is a symbol often used to represent Christ in Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox Christian Churches.[2]

Nevertheless, some believe that the term is part of an effort to "take Christ out of Christmas" or to literally "cross out Christ";[3] it is seen as evidence of the secularization of Christmas, as a symptom of the commercialization of the holiday (as the abbreviation has long been used by retailers). It may also be seen as a vehicle to be more inclusive. (See political correctness.)


The labarum, often called the Chi-Rho, is a Christian symbol representing Christ.The occasionally held belief that the "X" represents the cross on which Christ was crucified also has no basis in fact. St Andrew's Cross is X-shaped, but Christ's cross was probably shaped like a T or a †. Indeed, X-as-chi was associated with Christ long before X-as-cross could be, since the cross as a Christian symbol developed later. (The Greek letter Chi Χ stood for "Christ" in the ancient Greek acrostic ΙΧΘΥΣ ichthys.) While some see the spelling of Christmas as Xmas a threat, others see it as a way to honor the martyrs. The use of X as an abbreviation for "cross" in modern abbreviated writing (e.g. "Kings X" for "Kings Cross") may have reinforced this assumption.

In ancient Christian art, χ and χρ are abbreviations for Christ's name.[4] 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". The proper names containing the name "Christ" other than aforementioned are rarely abbreviated in this way (e.g. Hayden Xensen for the actor name "Hayden Christensen"). This apparent usage of "X" to spell the syllable "kris" (rather than the sounds "ks") has extended to "xtal" for "crystal", and on florists' signs "xant" for "chrysanthemum"[5] (though these words are not etymologically related to "Christ"; "crystal" comes from a Greek word meaning "ice"; "chrysanthemum" comes from Greek words meaning "golden flower"; "Christ" comes from a Greek word meaning "anointed").

In the 17th and 18th Centuries, "Xene" and "Exene" were common spellings of the given name Christene.

Answer 10

X Marks out Christ for the people that don't like to write that name.