The meaning of "Xmas"
Where does the word "Xmas" come from? It seems to be a useful abbrieviation for "Christmas", and it is sometimes said that those lazily using it are "removing the Christ from Christmas". But what is the truth of the matter?
Xmas is older than you might think. The first examples of the abbreviation Xmas being used can be found in 15th century ecclesiastical writings. The X originally represented the first letter of the Greek word Xριστóς, meaning Christ.
For many hundreds of years religious scholars would simply write an “X” to refer to Jesus and this wasn’t the only case of such abbreviations. Even the word God was simply written as θ (theta), the first letter of the Greek word θεός–Theos. These abbreviations were used all the time and, in fact, they became so common that soon they started to be used in non-religious writing as well. Apparently it was already habitual in the 17th century for somebody named Christian to write “Xian” or “Xtian” instead of the customary way.
Of course, its prominence in the 20th century probably had more to do with the fact that Xmas has the same amount of letters as the word sale.
Further reading
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