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What is "xmas"

Crossword clues for xmas

xmas
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Xmas

"Christmas," 1551, X'temmas, wherein the X is an abbreviation for Christ in Christmas, English letter X being identical in form (but not sound signification) to Greek chi, the first letter of Greek Christos "Christ" (see Christ). The earlier way to abbreviate the word in English was Xp- or Xr- (corresponding to the "Chr-" in Greek Χριστος), and the form Xres mæsse for "Christmas" appears in the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" (c.1100).

Wikipedia
Xmas

Xmas is a common abbreviation 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 Chi, which is the first letter of the Greek word Χριστός, which in English is " Christ". The "-mas" part is from the Latin-derived Old English word for Mass.

There is a common belief that the word Xmas stems from a secular attempt to remove the religious tradition from Christmas by taking the "Christ" out of "Christmas", but its use dates back to the 16th century.

Usage examples of "xmas".

Cambridge on Xmas Eve of last year, and left there to like freeze there, in an alley, in a storm, and ended up losing his hands and feet.

Dustbowly-looking Seventh-Day Adventist who never once pressed Brucie to speak, probably out of sympathy, probably sympathizing with the searing pain the opaque-eyed child must have felt over not only giving his Mama a lethal Xmas present but over then having to watch his widowed asymetrical Pop cave psycho-spiritually in after the wake, watching Mr.

The Xmas cards had had excruciating little watercolor pictures of locomotives on them.

And that the Auteur had apparently remained alcohol-free for the whole next three-and-a-half months, from Xmas of the Year of the Tucks Medicated Pad to 1 April of the Year of the Trial-Size Dove Bar, the date of his suicide.

We may have to fill up at Hazebrouck, which will interrupt the very festive Xmas dinner the French Staff are getting ready for us.

We had a very festive Xmas dinner, going to the wards which were in charge of nursing orderlies between the courses.

On Xmas Eve night it froze hard, and they were so weak and starved and numb that the Sergt.

Eve dinner, with chicken, and Xmas pudding on fire, and Sauterne and Champagne and crackers.

I want the world to see that Xmas and I are living things, not just historic events that are too old to have meaning.

Three sharp notes sprang at him from the normal holes of her head, and the heavy door rolled softly out of the wall until it shut them in the gay red-carpeted room with a Xmas tree - the father, the naked little girl and the iron Mox.

Why had she mailed a Xmas card of furiously scrawled obscenities to her parents?

The sheet is headed by a beautifully embossed device of some holly in red and green, wishing the recipient of the letter a merry Xmas and a happy new year, while the border is crimped and edged with blue.

The hard winter that is going to begin about Xmas time has been definitely prophesied, in fact promised by the squirrels, the groundhogs and the makers of fur garments and by the West Indian Steamship agents.

It is not until he gets to the mailing box in front of the post office that he even looks at the Xmas card he is carrying.

It was after Xmas, and his father wanted to take the new car for a drive, and the boy rode with him.