"OMG it's Xmas!" – The Surprising History of 5 English Abbreviations
A lot of students ask us why "Christmas" is abbreviated "Xmas." Today, we'll go over this along with the history of some other popular abbreviations that are older than most learners realize!
1. Xmas
The abbreviation "Xmas" has been around for a while. For example, here it is on a postcard from 1909 that says, "Wishing you a Merry Xmas."
But did you know that people have been abbreviating Christmas as "Xmas" for centuries? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, "Xmas" dates back to 1755 and an even earlier version, "X'temass" goes all the way to 1551.
The practice of writing X instead of "Christ" goes back even further. As the Daily News explains:
The "x" in Xmas comes from the Greek letter chi — the first letter in the Greek word for "Christ." The letter has been used as a shorter spelling of "Christ" in English for almost 1,000 years.
For reference, the Greek word for "Christ" looks like this: Χριστός. As for how this Greek letter made its way into English, that's probably because the New Testament was originally written in Greek and it wasn't until the 1500s that the Bible was translated into English.
There's more to this story, but this should (hopefully) be enough information for students who ask about the origins of "Xmas."
2. xx
If you want to talk more about the letter X, you can mention that it also means "kisses" as in the greeting "XOXO."
You can also introduce students to greetings like "x" and "xx" – the virtual kisses that British people, in particular, seem to use in their online communications. For example, a 2014 survey of people in the UK found that “95 percent of them used ‘xx’ in text messages, emails, and instant messages.”
Happy Sunday!!! How’s everyone doing? Xx pic.twitter.com/QbdCptWo9x
— Jeannine Barry (@Jeannine_Barry) February 28, 2021
From my experience corresponding with British friends, it seems women send virtual kisses more than men. Some of them even used it at the end of all their messages! An American expat in the UK seems to agree:
In my experience women are more liberal kissers, and more quick to increase the number of xs in their messages. Heterosexual men ... say that they kiss each other much less frequently. ... All this rather disappointingly suggests that virtual kissing is perceived by some as a ladies’ activity.
However, virtual kisses may not always have been a female thing. The Oxford English Dictionary actually has a record of Winston Churchill using it in a letter in 1894!
Please excuse bad writing as I am in an awful hurry. (Many kisses.) xxx WSC.
- Winston Churchill
So while we don't know for sure how X's came to symbolize kisses, it certainly has an interesting past and present!
3. OMG
Another fun fact you can share with students is that the slang expression "OMG" is actually much older than most people realize. Here it is, used at the bottom of a letter to Winston Churchill in 1917.
Feel free to share this image with your students to spark some fun discussions. For example, you can ask what they think about using "OMG" in a letter to a head of state or whether they're surprised to see this phrase used over a century ago.
4. RIP
"RIP" or "R.I.P." is the most ancient expression we'll introduce today. It actually comes from the Latin expression for "Rest in Peace" (requiescat in pace), which began appearing on gravestones in the 8th century.
This might seem a bit morbid to teach during the holiday season, but your students may be interested to learn that it has taken on a new life as online slang. As Netlingo explains:
RIP is used in response to an unfortunate but mild problem, and “big RIP” is used in response to an unfortunate but slightly less mild problem. You can also say “RIP me” which is usually used in person or in text, or you can pronounce the individual R, I, and P letters for added drama. For example, “Big RIP I just spilled coffee all over my computer” or “RIP me I just spilled coffee all over my computer!”
You can also encourage students to have fun making example sentences with "RIP" about their own lives. For example, "My boss told me I have to work on Saturday. RIP me."
5. PS
"PS" or "P.S." is a popular abbreviation, appearing in everything from the Beatles song, "P.S. I Love You," to modern-day text messages ("PS don't forget to take out the trash"). In English, it dates back to the 16th century and has even earlier roots in the Latin phrase post scriptum.
A fun fact about postscripts is that they weren't always written at the bottom of a letter as we think. In the old days, when you forgot to say something, you'd have to fit it in wherever you could find space, and this often meant the side margins.
For example, here's a letter by Alexander Graham Bell with a postscript squeezed into the upper left corner.
It might be fun to introduce this history and ask students if similar letter-writing practices exist in their culture.
👋 That’s It For Now
We hope this has given you some more ideas for fun topics to discuss with students this holiday season. Happy holidays, and don't forget to participate in our workplace decoration contest for a chance to win up to $200!
