Jeremiah Williams » Rants http://jeremiahwilliams.net the thoughts of a random mind. Thu, 15 Mar 2012 21:34:17 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 The Origins of the word Xmas. http://jeremiahwilliams.net/the-origins-of-the-word-xmas/ http://jeremiahwilliams.net/the-origins-of-the-word-xmas/#comments Sat, 25 Dec 2010 23:19:30 +0000 Jeremiah Williams http://jeremiahwilliams.net/?p=766

The abbreviation of Xmas for Christmas is neither modern nor disrespectful. The Oxford English Dictionary documents the use of this abbreviation back to 1551. Undoubtedly it was employed before that. Why do we think this is a new and vulgar representation of the word Christmas? It seems to stem from the erroneous belief that the letter X is used to stand for the word Christ because of its resemblance to a cross, or that the abbreviation was deliberate, to take the Christ out of Christmas.  This usage is nearly as old as Christianity itself, and its origins Greek. The first letter in the Greek word for ‘Christ’ is ‘chi,’ and the Greek letter ‘chi’ is represented by a symbol similar to the letter ‘X’ in the modern Roman alphabet.  So Xmas is a perfectly legitimate abbreviation for the word ‘Christmas’ (just as ‘Xian’ is also sometimes used as an abbreviation of the word ‘Christian’).

]]> http://jeremiahwilliams.net/the-origins-of-the-word-xmas/feed/ 0 Cell phone carriers are looking to kill the Internet! http://jeremiahwilliams.net/cell-phone-carriers-are-looking-to-kill-the-internet/ http://jeremiahwilliams.net/cell-phone-carriers-are-looking-to-kill-the-internet/#comments Mon, 20 Dec 2010 18:00:25 +0000 Jeremiah Williams http://jeremiahwilliams.net/?p=762 Wireless carriers openly considering charging per service.

Engadget Article.

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