Where Does The Word Christmas Come From And What Does It Mean

Where did exchanging gifts come from and what does god s word say about it.

Where does the word christmas come from and what does it mean. The phrase dates back to 1038 more than 1 000 years after jesus christ was born while the word xmas originated in the 16th century. The word christ comes from the greek word christos which comes. But the history of the word xmas is actually more respectable and fascinating than you might suspect. Where did xmas come from.

The word christmas comes from the combination of the words christ and mass but where did the x in xmas come from and what does it mean. First of all the abbreviation predates by centuries its use in gaudy advertisements. The bibliotheca sacra states the interchange of presents between friends is a like characteristic of christmas and the saturnalia and must have been adopted by christians from the pagans as the admonition of tertullian plainly shows vol. The word christmas comes from cristes maesse an early english phrase that means mass of christ 1 it is interesting to note that the word mass as used by the roman catholics has traditionally been rejected by the so called protestants such as lutherans baptists.

It was first used in the mid 1500s x represents the greek letter chi the initial letter in the word χριστός chrīstos. Xmas also x mas is a common abbreviation of the word christmas it is sometimes pronounced ˈ ɛ k s m ə s but xmas and variants such as xtemass originated as handwriting abbreviations for the typical pronunciation ˈ k r ɪ s m ə s the x comes from the greek letter chi which is the first letter of the greek word christós greek. χριστός which became christ in english. Christmas christian festival celebrating the birth of jesus the english term christmas mass on christ s day is of fairly recent origin.

The origin of mass in the christian sense of the word is not entirely clear. The english term christmas comes from the combination of the words mass and christ according to the encyclopedia britannica. Christmas or feast of the nativity is an annual festival commemorating the birth of jesus christ observed primarily on december 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. The world book encyclopedia defines christmas as follows.

In the greek alphabet x is the symbol for the letter chi chi or x is the first letter in the greek word for christ. The word christmas comes from middle english cristemasse which in turn comes from old english cristes messe literally meaning christ s mass.