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Look up X or x in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
X
ISO basic
Latin alphabet
AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMmNnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz

X is the twenty-fourth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English (/[invalid input: 'noicon']ˈɛks/) is pronounced ecs,[1] plural ecses (/[invalid input: 'noicon']ˈɛks[invalid input: 'ɨ']z/).

Uses

Apart from being a part of the Latin alphabet, X has been used as a name sake for a Generation of Humans. Generation X commonly abbreviated to Gen X, is the Generation born after the Baby Boom ended, ranging from 1961 to 1981. "X" the letter is a Roman numeral representing 10. It is commonly used in correspondence along with the letter O (as in "XOXO"-the Xs representing kisses and the Os hugs). Traditionally, X was used to "mark the spot" on treasure maps to indicate where treasure was buried. X is used by the illiterate in lieu of a signature and indicates a signature line on forms. In cartoons, Xs are drawn instead of eyes to indicate the death of a character. X also represents an incorrect answer on tests or quizzes. X in many cultures has represented Christ., i.e. in American culture x-mas is often used. X has been used as a unit of measurement, most notably XXL or 2X.

History

The consonant cluster /ks/ was written in Ancient Greek as either Chi Χ (Western Greek) or Xi Ξ (Eastern Greek). In the end, Chi was standardized as /kʰ/ (/x/ in Modern Greek), while Xi was standardized for /ks/. But the Etruscans had taken over Χ from older Western Greek; therefore, it stood for /ks/ in Etruscan and Latin.

It is unknown whether the letters Chi and Xi are Greek inventions, or whether they are ultimately of Semitic origin. Chi was placed toward the end of the Greek alphabet, after the Semitic letters, along with Phi, Psi, and Omega, suggesting that it was an innovation; further, there is no letter corresponding specifically to the sound /ks/ in Semitic. There was a Phoenician letter ḥeth with a probable sound /ħ/, somewhat similar to /kʰ/, but this was adopted into Greek as first the consonant /h/, and later, the long vowel Eta (Η,η), and does not seem to have been the source of Greek Chi. The Phoenician letter Samekh (representing /s/) is usually considered the inspiration for Greek Xi, but as noted, Chi had a graphically distinct shape from Xi—although it may possibly have been another variant originally based on samekh. The original form of samekh may have been an Egyptian hieroglyph for the Djed column, but this too is uncertain, as no intervening Proto-Sinaitic form of this letter is attested.

Egyptian hieroglyph "column" Phoenician S Greek Xi Greek Chi Etruscan X
R11

Usage

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, [x] represents a voiceless velar fricative.

In some languages, as a result of assorted phonetic changes, handwriting adaptations or simply spelling convention, X has other pronunciations:

  • Basque: as a spelling for[ʃ].
  • [The island of Texel is pronounced as Tessel] Error: {{Lang-xx}}: text has italic markup (help). This is because ss used to be written with a ligature closely resembling X. In all other words X represents [ks].
  • English: X is typically a sign for the compound consonants [ks]; or sometimes when followed by an accented syllable beginning with a vowel, or when followed by silent h and an accented vowel [ɡz] (e.g. exhaust, exam); usually [z] at the beginnings of words (e.g. xylophone, Xenon), and in some compounds keeps the [z] sound, as in (e.g. meta-xylene). It also makes the sound [kʃ] in words ending in -xion (typically used only in British-based spellings of the language; American spellings tend to use -ction). It can also represent the sounds [ɡʒ] or [kʃ], for example, in the words luxury and sexual, respectively. Final x is always [ks] (e.g. ax/axe) except in loan words such as faux (see French, below). In abbreviations, it can represent "trans-" (e.g. XMIT for transmit, XFER for transfer), "cross-" (e.g. X-ing for crossing; XREF for cross-reference), "Christ" (e.g. Xmas for Christmas; Xian for Christian), the "Crys" in Crystal (XTAL), or various words starting with "ex" (e.g. XL for extra large; XOR for exclusive-or). There are very few English words that start with X – the least amount of any letter. Many of the words that do start with X are either standardized trademarks (XEROX) or acronyms (XC). No words in the Basic English vocabulary begin with X, but it occurs in words beginning with other letters. It is often found in a word with an E before it. X is the third most rarely used letter in the English language.[citation needed]
  • French: at the ends of words, silent (or [z] in liaison if the next word starts with a vowel). This usage arose as a handwriting alteration of final -us. Two exceptions are pronounced [s]: six and dix. It is pronounced [z] in sixième and dixième.
  • In Italian, X is always pronounced [ks], as in the words uxorio, extra, xilofono. It is also used, mainly amongst younger generations as a short form for "per" meaning "for", for example, x sempre (forever). This because in Italian the multiplication sign (similar to x) is called "per". An exception occurs in the archaic spelling of the Venetian dialect, where it represents [z], example: Venexia.
  • In Norwegian, X is generally pronounced [ks], but since the nineteenth century there has been a tendency to spell it out as ks whenever possible; it may still be retained in names of people, though it is fairly rare, and occurs mostly in foreign words and SMS language. Usage in German and Finnish is similar.
  • Spanish: In Old Spanish, X was pronounced [ʃ], as it is still currently in other Iberian Romance languages. Later, the sound evolved to a hard [x] sound. In modern Spanish, the hard [x] sound is spelled with a j, or with a g before e and i, though x is still retained for some names (notably México, which alternates with Méjico). Now, X represents the sound [s] (word-initially), or the consonant cluster [ks] (e.g. oxígeno, examen). Even rarer, the x can be pronounced [ʃ] like in Old Spanish in some proper nouns such as Raxel (a variant of Rachel) and Uxmal.
  • Galician, Catalan and Leonese language: In Galician (a language related to Portuguese and spoken in Northwestern Spain), and Leonese, in Spain, x is pronounced [ʃ] in most cases. In learned words, such as 'taxativo' (taxative), the x is pronounced [ks]. However, Galician speakers tend to pronounce it as s, especially when it appears in implosive position, such as in 'externo' (extern).
  • In Portuguese, x can have four sounds: the most common is [ʃ], as in 'xícara' (cup). The other sounds are: [ks] as in 'fênix/fénix' (phoenix) and s, as in 'próximo' (close/next). The rarest is [z], as in 'exagerado' (exaggerate).
  • Venetian:it represented the voiced alveolar fricative [z] much like in Portuguese 'exagerado', English 'xylophone' or in the French liaison. Examples from medieval texts include 'raxon' (reason), 'prexon' (prison), 'dexerto' (desert), 'chaxa/caxa' (home, It. "casa"). Nowadays, the most known word is 'xe' (is/are).
  • In Albanian, x represents [dz], while the digraph xh represents [dʒ].
  • In Maltese x is pronounced [ʃ] or, in some cases, [ʒ] (only in loanwords such as 'televixin', and not for all speakers)

Additionally, in languages for which the Latin alphabet has been adapted only recently, x has been used for various sounds, in some cases inspired by European usage, but in others, for consonants uncommon in Europe. For these no Latin letter stands out as an obvious choice, and since most of the various European pronunciations of x can be written by other means, the letter becomes available for more unusual sounds.

In Japan, Ⓧ is a symbol used for resale price maintenance.

Computing codes

class="template-letter-box | In Unicode the capital X is codepoint U+0058 and the lower case x is U+0078.

The ASCII code for capital X is 88 and for lowercase x is 120; or in binary 01011000 and 01111000, correspondingly.

The EBCDIC code for capital X is 231 and for lowercase x is 167.

The numeric character references in HTML and XML are "X" and "x" for upper and lower case respectively.

See also

References

  1. ^ "X" Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (1989); Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (1993); "ex," op. cit.
  2. ^ Esperanto#Writing_diacritic_letters
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