What is the meaning of the word Christmas being shortened to X-mas?

Question

What is the meaning of the word Christmas being shortened to X-mas?

Answer 1

"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 Anglo-Saxon for "festival", "religious event": Crīstesmæsse or Crīstemæsse. This abbreviation is widely used but not universally accepted; some view it as demeaning to Christ, whilst others find it a helpful abbreviation.





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.[1]

Some believe that the term is part of an effort to "take Christ out of Christmas" or to literally "cross out Christ";[2] it is also 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).

Answer 2

Christmas is sometimes shortened to Xmas because of the Greek letter X (Chi), sometimes used to abbreviate the word Christ.



The word "Christmas" means "Mass of Christ," later shortened to "Christ-Mass." The even shorter form "Xmas" - first used in Europe in the 1500s - is derived from the Greek alphabet, in which X is the first letter of Christ's name: Xristos, therefore "X-Mass."

Answer 3

Think about it -



+mas didn't quite work in speech



and the hyphen is not used in proper English!

Answer 4

The letter "chi" in Greek is written as "X" and is the first letter of the Greek word "Christos". The letter "chi" has been used as an abbreviation for Christ (sometimes with the second letter of the word, "rho") almost since the time of the first Christians. The fact that it is cross shaped is a coincidence. The abbreviation "xmas" for "christmas" is therefore perfectly valid, from the Christian point of view, and shouldn't be regarded as a secular corruption of the word.

Answer 5

Xmas is not of modern coinage. The Oxford English Dictionary documents the use of this abbreviation back to 1551. Undoubtedly it was employed before that. Now 1551 is fifty years before the first English colonists came to America and sixty years earlier than the completion of the King James Version of the Bible! Moreover, at the same time, Xian and Xianity were in frequent use as abbreviations of Christian and Christianity.



The X in Xmas did not originate as our English alphabet's X but as the symbol X in the Greek alphabet, called Chi, with a hard ch. The Greek Chi or X is the first letter in the Greek word Christos. ...



As early as the first century the X was used as Christ's initial. Certainly through church history we can trace this usage. In many manuscripts of the New Testament, X abbreviates Christos (Xristos). In ancient Christian art X and XR (Chi Ro--the first two letters in Greek of Christos abbreviate his name. We find that this practice entered the Old English language as early as AD 100.



Moreover, Wycliff and other devout believers used X as an abbreviation for Christ. Were they trying to take Christ away and substitute an unknown quantity? The idea is preposterous.



Some may use Xmas today as an unchristian shortcut for Christmas, but the ancient abbreviation by no means originated as such. The scribes who copied New Testament manuscripts had no intention of taking Christ out of the New Testament. They used the abbreviation simply to save time and space.

Answer 6

right here is the authentic short tale: X is truly the Greek be conscious for Christ. the middle Age Catholic friars, long in the previous the printing press substitute into invented, deemed it ultimate to symbolize the be conscious Christ with the Greek letter "chi", or "X" as a results of fact they have been uninterested in getting to repeat the completed Scriptures through hand. And so we've the expression "Merry X-Mas" :)

Answer 7

People are lazy and think by saing X-mas they're really cool. SADDOS

Answer 8

i didnt think it mean anything but i do it alot in txting and stuff

Answer 9

Someone told me that it could the cross...someone else told me that it's a way non-believers write it, because it's crossing out the Christ, but I really don't know.

Answer 10

In the old Roman Catholic liturgy, the Greek language had limited but significant influence.



The word "Christ" is represented by a figure similar to the English "X."



So, in old days, "X'' substituted for "Christ" and "mas" was left intact.



Many people today inaccurately think that Xmas is a denigration or commercialization of the event; it is merely shorthand!

Answer 11

My father, an Anglican priest hated the abbreviation Xmas. He said it was leaving Christ out of Christmas!

Answer 12

Same as Crimbo

Answer 13

x in most peoples numereical terms means the sign of the cross.as if you did not know.