Does Xmas make you cross? What am I talking about? I’m referring to Xmas the abbreviation of Christmas rather than the event itself.
I’m sure you won’t be at all surprised to know that that the usage of ‘Xmas’, like so many other linguistic derivations, goes back a long way. At least 1000 years. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: there’s really nothing new under the sun.
This 2004 BBC article, Why get Cross about Xmas?, takes a look at why this particular four-letter word gets people so hot under the collar.
Many people, and I fell into this camp, believe Xmas to be a relatively modern, lazy shorthand born on the high street. It’s certainly beloved of shop signs and headline writers. But I am now enlightened.
Besides all this, there’s a common belief that ‘xmas’ (pronounced /ˈɛksməs/) is a secular attempt to remove the ‘Christ’ from Christmas. But it’s neither. In fact, as the article points out, far from being an irreligious abbreviation the term appears to have impeccable Christian credentials. And that’s because it’s thought that the ‘X’ represents the Greek letter ‘Chi’ – the first letter of the Greek word for Christ: Christos. It’s all Greek to me.
Space saver
All the above apart, the term was also a space saver. In a gospel manuscript the word ‘Christ’ would feature a lot. Given that parchment was an expensive commodity anything that saved space on the precious material would be welcome.
But, whatever the ins and outs of the origins of Xmas it was apparently good enough for the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge who wrote in 1801: ‘On Xmas Day I breakfasted with Davy’. Whoever he was.
Long unpopular with many editorial style guides, the 1948 Vogue book of etiquette stated that ‘Xmas’ should never be used in greetings cards. So if your wish is to be in vogue – then ‘Christmas’ it must be.
I’m with Vogue.
