Archives for December 2005

I originally posted this on December 20, 2004, but I think it would be nice to bring to the forefront once more…

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Back in September (2004), Neil Gaiman posted an entry on his site that mentioned the definition of the word ‘Xmas’. Like many, if not most Americans (and perhaps other English speakers), I assumed it was a shortened and/or slang version of the word Christmas. Apparently this is not the case. According to the American Heritage Dictionary (via Dictionary.com), Xmas is a valid word, with a long history within Religious writing:
> Xmas has been used for hundreds of years in religious writing, where the X represents a Greek chi, the first letter of, “Christ”.In this use it is parallel to other forms like Xtian, “Christian”. But people unaware of the Greek origin of this X often mistakenly interpret Xmas as an informal shortening pronounced (ksms). Many therefore frown upon the term Xmas because it seems to them a commercial convenience that omits Christ from Christmas.