COINED WORDS: MERRY CHRISTMAS AND XMAS

PART OF SERIES, "PASKO 2025: DISCOVER THE CHRISTMAS"

Photo: Lia Lauder / Pinterest

Introduction

The word during holiday season is called, "Christmas", but there's the term, "Xmas". But some have Criticizing the wordd, "Xmas" as replacing Christ to X(as nothing). So, what's behind these terms?

Origins and Criticism

The "X" comes from the Greek letter Chi, which is the first letter of the Greek word for Christ, Christós (Χριστός). For centuries, "X" or "XP" (Chi-Rho) was used by the church and scholars as a sacred shorthand for Christ in manuscripts and art. The first recorded appearance of an abbreviation for Christmas was in 1021, when an Anglo-Saxon scribe used "XPmas" to save space on expensive parchment paper. Over time, the term evolved from versions like "X'temmas" (1551) and "Xstmas" (1799) to the modern "Xmas," which became widely used in the 18th and 19th centuries  (Miller-Wilson, 2021; Abramson, 2007).

There is a common modern belief that Xmas is a secular attempt to remove the religious meaning of the holiday. However, linguists and historians clarify that the "X" has always stood specifically for Christ, not for "crossing him out". "Merry" comes from the Old English myrige (pleasant or agreeable). The phrase was popularized globally by Charles Dickens's 1843 novel A Christmas Carol (Waxman, 2022; Merry, Tidings, Noel – Common Christmas Phrases and Their Origins – Christian Living Magazine, 2022)

Reference

Miller-Wilson, K. (2021). Origin of Xmas: More Than an Abbreviation. Yourdictionary.com. https://www.yourdictionary.com/articles/xmas-origin

‌Abramson, S. (2007, November 21). Why is there a controversy surrounding the word “Xmas”? HowStuffWorks. https://people.howstuffworks.com/culture-traditions/holidays-christmas/xmas.htm

‌Waxman, O. B. (2022, December 10). Why We Say “Merry Christmas.” The Surprising Origins of 5 Christmas Traditions. TIME; Time. https://time.com/6240140/why-we-say-merry-christmas-traditions/

‌Merry, Tidings, Noel – Common Christmas Phrases and Their Origins – Christian Living Magazine. (2022, October 31). Christianlivingmag.com. https://www.christianlivingmag.com/merry-tidings-noel-common-christmas-phrases-and-their-origins/

‌Author: Ken Klark L. Flores, via Aksyon Apologia/The Filipino Apologia