Usage of X for Christ in ancient languages
For the article about the "ΧΡ" symbol see Chi Rho. The word "
Christ" and its compounds, including "Christmas", have been abbreviated in English for at least the past 1,000 years, long before the modern "Xmas" was commonly used. "Christ" was often written as "XP" or "Xt"; there are references in the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as far back as AD 1021. This X and P arose as the
uppercase forms of the
Greek letters χ and
ρ used in ancient abbreviations for Χριστος (Greek for "Christ"), and are still widely seen in many
Eastern Orthodox icons depicting
Jesus Christ. The
labarum, an amalgamation of the two Greek letters rendered as
☧, is a symbol often used to represent Christ in
Catholic,
Protestant, and
Orthodox Christian Churches.
[8]
The
labarum, often called the Chi-Rho, is a
Christian symbol representing
Christ.
The occasionally held belief that the "X" represents the
cross on which Christ was crucified also has no basis in fact