Xmas (also X-mas) is a common

abbreviation An abbreviation (from Latin ''brevis'', meaning ''short'') is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase; for example, the word ''abbrevia ...

of the word '' Christmas''. It is sometimes pronounced , but ''Xmas'', and variants such as ''Xtemass'', originated as handwriting abbreviations for the typical pronunciation . The 'X' comes from the Greek letter , which is the first letter of the Greek word (), which became '' Christ'' in English. The suffix ''-mas'' is from the Latin-derived

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

word for Mass. There is a common misconception that the word ''Xmas'' stems from a secularizing tendency to de-emphasize the religious tradition of Christmas, by taking the 'Christ' out of "Christmas". Nevertheless, the term's usage dates back to the 16th century, and corresponds to Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Church of England, and

Episcopalian Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the l ...

liturgical use of various forms of chi-rho

monogram A monogram is a motif made by overlapping or combining two or more letters or other graphemes to form one symbol. Monograms are often made by combining the initials of an individual or a company, used as recognizable symbols or logos. A series o ...

. In English, "X" was first used as a scribal abbreviation for "Christ" in 1100; "X'temmas" is attested in 1551, and "Xmas" in 1721.

Style guides and etiquette

The term ''Xmas'' is deprecated by some modern

style guide A style guide or manual of style is a set of standards for the writing, formatting, and design of documents. It is often called a style sheet, although that term also has multiple other meanings. The standards can be applied either for gene ...

s, including those at '' The New York Times'', ''The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage'', '' The Times'', '' The Guardian'', and the BBC.Griffiths, Emma
"Why get cross about Xmas?"
BBC website, December 22, 2004. Retrieved December 28, 2008. Millicent Fenwick, in the 1948 ''Vogue's Book of Etiquette'', states that "'Xmas' should never be used" in greeting cards. ''The Cambridge Guide to Australian English Usage'' states that the spelling should be considered informal and restricted to contexts where concision is valued, such as headlines and greeting cards.Peters, Pam
"Xmas" article
''The Cambridge Guide to Australian English Usage'', Cambridge University Press, 2007, , p 872, retrieved via Google Books, December 27, 2008 ''The Christian Writer's Manual of Style'', while acknowledging the ancient and respectful use of ''Xmas'' in the past, states that the spelling should never be used in formal writing.

History

Use in English

Early use of ''Xmas'' includes Bernard Ward's ''History of St. Edmund's college, Old Hall'' (originally published ). An earlier version, ''X'temmas'', dates to 1551. Around 1100 the term was written as in the ''

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' is a collection of annals in Old English, chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the ''Chronicle'' was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alf ...

''. ''Xmas'' is found in a letter from George Woodward in 1753. Lord Byron used the term in 1811, as did Samuel Coleridge (1801) and Lewis Carroll (1864). In the United States, the fifth American edition of William Perry's ''Royal Standard English Dictionary'', published in Boston in 1800, included in its list of "Explanations of Common Abbreviations, or Contraction of Words" the entry: "Xmas. Christmas."

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (March 8, 1841 – March 6, 1935) was an American jurist and legal scholar who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932.Holmes was Acting Chief Justice of the Un ...

used the term in a letter dated 1923. Since at least the late 19th century, ''Xmas'' has been in use in various other English-language nations. Quotations with the word can be found in texts first written in Canada, and the word has been used in Australia, and in the Caribbean. ''Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage'' stated that modern use of the term is largely limited to advertisements, headlines and banners, where its conciseness is valued. The association with commerce "has done nothing for its reputation", according to the dictionary. In the United Kingdom, the former Church of England Bishop of Blackburn,

Alan Chesters Alan David Chesters CBE (born 26 August 1937) was the Bishop of Blackburn from 1989 to 2003. Early life and education Chesters is the son of Herbert and Catherine Chesters, of Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. He was educated at Elland Grammar Scho ...

, recommended to his clergy that they avoid the spelling. In the United States, in 1977 New Hampshire Governor

Meldrim Thomson Meldrim Thomson Jr. (March 8, 1912 – April 19, 2001) was an American politician who served three terms as the 73rd governor of New Hampshire from 1973 to 1979. A Republican, he was known as a strong supporter of conservative political values. E ...

sent out a press release saying that he wanted journalists to keep the "Christ" in Christmas, and not call it Xmas—which he called a "

pagan Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. ...

" spelling of 'Christmas'.

Use of ''X'' for 'Christ'

The abbreviation of Christmas as ''Xmas'' is a source of disagreement among Christians who observe the holiday. The December 1957 ''News and Views'' published by the

Church League of America {{Short description, Anti-communist organization The Church League of America was founded in Chicago in 1937 to oppose left-wing and Social Gospel influences in Christian thought in organizations. The group's founders were Frank J. Loesch, a lawyer ...

, a conservative organization co-founded in 1937 by George Washington Robnett, attacked the use of Xmas in an article titled "X=The Unknown Quantity". The claims were picked up later by

Gerald L. K. Smith Gerald Lyman Kenneth Smith (February 27, 1898 – April 15, 1976) was an American clergyman, politician and organizer known for his populist and far-right demagoguery. A leader of the populist Share Our Wealth movement during the Great Depressio ...

, who in December 1966 claimed that Xmas was a "blasphemous omission of the name of Christ" and that "'X' is referred to as being symbolical of the unknown quantity". Smith further argued that the Jewish people had introduced Santa Claus to suppress New Testament accounts of Jesus, and that the United Nations, at the behest of "world Jewry", had "outlawed the name of Christ". There is, however, a well documented history of use of ''Χ'' (actually the Greek letter ) as an abbreviation for "Christ" and possibly also a symbol of the cross. The abbreviation appears on many Orthodox Christian religious icons. Dennis Bratcher, writing for Christian website ''The Voice'', states "there are always those who loudly decry the use of the abbreviation 'Xmas' as some kind of blasphemy against Christ and Christianity". Among them are evangelist

Franklin Graham William Franklin Graham III (born July 14, 1952) is an American evangelist and missionary. He frequently engages in Christian revival tours and political commentary. He is president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) and ...

and former CNN contributor Roland S. Martin. Graham stated in an interview: Roland Martin likewise relates the use of ''Xmas'' to his growing concerns of increasing commercialization and secularization of one of Christianity's highest holy days. Bratcher posits that those who dislike abbreviating the word are unfamiliar with a long history of Christians using X in place of "Christ" for various purposes. The word '' Christ'' and its compounds, including ''Christmas'', have been abbreviated in English for at least the past 1,000 years, long before the modern ''Xmas'' was commonly used. ''Christ'' was often written as 'Xρ' or 'Xt'; there are references in the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' as far back as 1021. This 'X' and 'P' arose as the uppercase forms of the Greek letters (Ch) and (R) used in ancient abbreviations for (Greek for "Christ"). The Chi-Rho, an amalgamation of the two Greek letters rendered as '☧' ( Unicode character ) is a symbol often used to represent Christ in Catholic, Protestant, and

Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pag ...

Christian Churches. The '' Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') and the ''OED Supplement'' have cited usages of ''X-'' or ''Xp-'' for 'Christ-' as early as 1485. The terms ''Xtian'' and less commonly ''Xpian'' have also been used for 'Christian'. The ''OED'' further cites usage of ''Xtianity'' for 'Christianity' from 1634. According to ''Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage'', most of the evidence for these words comes from "educated Englishmen who knew their Greek"."Xmas" article
''Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage'', Merriam-Webster, 1994, p 968, , retrieved via Google Books, December 27, 2008 In ancient Christian art, and are abbreviations for Christ's name. In many manuscripts of the '' New Testament'' and icons, 'Χ' is an abbreviation for , as is XC (the first and last letters in Greek, using the lunate

sigma Sigma (; uppercase Σ, lowercase σ, lowercase in word-final position ς; grc-gre, σίγμα) is the eighteenth letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 200. In general mathematics, uppercase Σ is used as ...

); compare IC for Jesus in Greek.

Other uses of ''X(t)'' for 'Chris(t)-'

Other proper names containing the name 'Christ' besides those mentioned above are sometimes abbreviated similarly, either as ''X'' or ''Xt'', both of which have been used historically, e.g., ''Xtopher'' or ''Xopher'' for 'Christopher', or ''Xtina'' or ''Xina'' for the name 'Christina'. In the 17th and 18th centuries, ''Xene'' and ''Exene'' were common spellings for the given name 'Christine'. The American singer Christina Aguilera has sometimes gone by the name "Xtina". Similarly, Exene Cervenka has been a noted American singer-songwriter since 1977. This usage of 'X' to spell the syllable ''kris'' (rather than the sounds ''ks'') has extended to ''xtal'' for ' crystal', and on florists' signs to ''xant'' for '

chrysanthemum Chrysanthemums (), sometimes called mums or chrysanths, are flowering plants of the genus ''Chrysanthemum'' in the family Asteraceae. They are native to East Asia and northeastern Europe. Most species originate from East Asia and the center ...

', even though these words are not etymologically related to ''Christ'': ''crystal'' comes from a Greek word meaning 'ice' (and not even using the letter ), and ''chrysanthemum'' comes from Greek words meaning 'golden flower', while ''Christ'' comes from a Greek word meaning 'anointed'.

In popular culture

* In the animated TV series ''

Futurama ''Futurama'' is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of the professional slacker Philip J. Fry, who is cryogenically preserved for 1000 years a ...

'', Christmas is referred to just as "Xmas", in speech and writing.

References

External links

An icon of Christ featuring the abbreviations IC and XC in the upper corners

"Why get cross about Xmas?"
(BBC, December 22, 2004) {{Christmas 16th-century neologisms Abbreviations Linguistic controversies