What Does the X in Xmas Mean?

Ligonier Ministries ^ | R.C. Sproul

[Steven Tyler]

Merry Christmas

The word Christmas contains too many letters for illiterates and atheists.
Hence, they sub in the capital X

[eeriegeno]

bookmark

[ponygirl]

Horse hockey. Spend some time researching 16th century English baptismal records and you will find the Greek letter replacing Christ in names like Christopher (Xtopher). I hardly think they were atheists. The overlapped symbol XR to represent Jesus Christ goes all the way back to Constantine and if you spend any time viewing early Christian art, you will see the Chi-Rho symbol everywhere. https://earlychurchhistory.org/christian-symbols/the-chi-rho-symbol/

The early Christian monks were fluent in Latin, Greek and Hebrew, as all 3 languages put together were requirements to read the early Christian texts. They were the only literate amongst the population, so the use of such symbols was often a requirement to communicate with the illiterate, who were 90% of the population. And so it was handed down to us. Show some respect for your ancestors. There is some truth to the statement that if you don’t know the three languages, you really haven’t read the real Bible.

[Chode]

OK, thought it was PAX, kinda like the chi-Rio

[rlmorel]

And to you too, FRiend...

[Rannug]

Yep.
The same as it means in Uhrichsville, Xville, Ohio. Laziness.

[cyclotic]

However, I’m willing to bet every single person who uses X is doing it to remove Christ from Christmas.

[rlmorel]

I suspect you are probably right, but I guess I can’t say I am ignorant of the other meaning now, either!

Hope you are having a nice Christmas, cyclic!

[Campion]

IC XC NIKA is the Greek abbreviation for Jesus (IC) Christ (XC) conquers (NIKA). "Nika" is related to the name of the pagan goddess of victory, Nike.