Xmas
Language: English
Part of speech: name
Pronunciation: enpr: krĭs'məs
enpr: ĕks'məs
ipa: /ˈkɹɪs.məs/
ipa: /ˈɛks.məs/
rhymes: (homophone of Christmas) -ɪsməs
homophone: Christmas
Forms: form: Xmases
form: Xmasses
form: X-mas
form: Xtmas
Etymology: Attested in this form since 1755, and preceded by earlier forms such as X'temmas (1551) and Old English Χp̃es mæssa (1100), from Cristes mæsse, with abbreviation of Cristes by the symbol X, orthographic borrowing from Ancient Greek Χ (Kh, letter chi), from Χριστός (Khristós, “Christ”). By surface analysis, X (“Christ”) + -mas (“holiday”). In popular use since late 19th century. See Wikipedia for more information.
Senses: examples: text: In ye Xmas and Whitsuntide Vacations, ye Scholars study at a rate of an hour and a Quarter each day & all yt go home have proportionable Tasks set them...
ref: c. 1755, Bernard Ward, History of St. Edmund's college, Old Hall, page 303:
text: A thousand thanks, merry Xmasses & happy New Years to you for yʳ delightful letter: […]
ref: 1774 December 20, David Garrick, “Letters from David Garrick, to George Colman, the Elder”, in George Colman, the Younger, editor, Posthumous Letters, from Various Celebrated Men; Addressed to Francis Colman, and George Colman, the Elder: […], London: T[homas] Cadell and W[illiam] Davies, […]; and W[illiam] Blackwood, Edinburgh, published 1820, page 302:
text: On Xmas Day I breakfasted with Davy, with the intention of dining with you...
ref: 1801 December 31, Samuel Coleridge, “letter to R. Southey”, Ten Letters from Coleridge to Southey, in The Atlantic Monthly, volume 73, number 435, published January 1894, page 66:
text: […]but if you won't come here before Xmas, I very much fear we shall not meet here at all[…]
ref: 1811 September 9, George Gordon Byron, “To the Hon. Augusta Leigh”, in Rowland E. Prothero, editor, The Works of Lord Byron, volume 9, London: John Murray, published 1898, page 31:
text: My dear Wilkie,—we will arrange our Xmas No., please God, under the shade of the Oak Trees.
ref: 1861 June 23, Charles Dickens, “Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent”, in Laurence Hutton, editor, Letters of Charles Dickens to Wilkie Collins, New York: Harper & Brothers, published 1892, page 100:
text: I should be very glad if you could help me in fixing on a name for my fairy-tale, which Mr. Tenniel (in consequence of your kind introduction) is now illustrating for me, and which I hope to get published before Xmas.
ref: 1864 June 10, Lewis Carroll, edited by Morton N. Cohen, The Letters of Lewis Carroll, volume 1, London: Macmillan, published 1979, page 65:
text: A Xmas card is a pleasant memento of a season of good will and kindly sentiment. It is a reminiscence of Xmas time. With Xmas we associate happy gatherings of friends, wintry skies without and cheerful hearths within, ice and snow to be kept in subjugation by warmth of disposition and genial affection. The Xmas cards ought to embody such traits, physical and mental.
ref: 1879 November 13, W. F. C., “Our London Letter”, in The American Stationer, volume 7, number 46, page 2:
text: They used to keep merry Xmasses with us in the old days when Xmas was merry, and now they come back and we share our Christmas dainties with them against our will.
ref: 1884, Louise Chandler Moulton, “John Jay’s Journey. A New Year’s Story.”, in Christian Advocate, volume 31, number 1 (whole 1483), New Orleans, La.: […] [T]he Louisiana, Mississippi and North Mississippi Conferences, Methodist Episcopal Church, South, published 1 January 1885, page 2, column 2:
text: […]as well as give the Imperial spree a notice next to reading matter in the Xmas issue[…]
ref: 1885 December 10, Carlyle Smith, “Our Xmas at Windsor”, in Life, volume 6, number 154, New York, page 338:
text: I was greatly pleased at receiving yours, and those of your sisters, and I did not think them at all too late; for as several of the Church Festivals have their ‘Octave’ so the chief mysteries of the Faith carry a glory around their heads that sends their light in a wide circle, like the halo round the head of a pictured Saint; and so I send my ‘Many Happy Xmasses’ and ‘Many Happy New Years’ to you and yours.
ref: 1897 January 10, Aubrey [Thomas] de Vere, “[Last Years, 1886-1902] Aubrey de Vere to Walter George Smith”, in Wilfrid Ward, Aubrey de Vere: A Memoir, Based on His Unpublished Diaries and Correspondence, London; New York, N.Y.; Bombay: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], published 1904, page 400:
ref: 1897 December, Standard American Publishing Co., “A Xmas gift for one dollar [advertisement]”, in The American Monthly Illustrated Review of Reviews, volume 16, number 95, page 49:
text: Don't let us spoil the Xmas holidays by a chore as colossal as it is disagreeable, and as disagreeable as it is unnecessary.
ref: 1913 November 18, C. S. Lewis, edited by Walter Hooper, The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis: Family Letters, 1905-1931, New York: HarperCollins, published 2004, →ISBN, page 41:
text: We’re off to Gstaad today until the sth of Jan. We have chartered a large plane, I’m not quite sure what it is but it seats about 16 and is a turbo-jet. The reason is that we have so many people coming with us: Sarah, Michael, Chris, Liza, Maria, Caroline, John Something-or-other who is Simmy’s boy friend from Hawaii, and our two bad selves. Otherwise it’s going to be one of those quiet, pipe-smoking, slippered, log-fired Xmasses with a well-loved and well-remembered volume of Dickens.
ref: 1968 December 21, Richard Burton, journal; quoted in Melvyn Bragg, “1968”, in Richard Burton: A Life, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, 1988, →ISBN, pages 278–279:
glosses: Abbreviation of Christmas.
Derived terms: merry Xmas
Xmas Island
Xmas tree