{"id":6806,"date":"2020-12-21T02:18:16","date_gmt":"2020-12-21T02:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/?p=6806"},"modified":"2024-04-19T23:49:26","modified_gmt":"2024-04-19T23:49:26","slug":"fun-facts-94-x","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/blog\/2020\/12\/21\/fun-facts-94-x\/","title":{"rendered":"Fun Facts About English #94 – The Power of X"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Kinney<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When published in 1755, the letter X<\/em> was left out of Johnson’s Dictionary<\/em> with the claim that X<\/em> “begins no word in the English language.” Historically, words like xylophone<\/em> and xenophobia<\/em> didn’t enter the English lexicon until the 19th century. Today, the Oxford English Dictionary<\/em> (OED<\/a>) contains about 400 words that begin with X<\/em>. Compare this to the letter S<\/em> with 79,900+ words! Nonetheless, where X<\/em> may fall short in word count, it packs a punch as a symbol, a classifier, and in popular culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

History and Phonology<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Briefly, X<\/em> is derived from the Phoenician letter samekh<\/em>, meaning “fish” and denoted a hard \/s\/ sound. The Greeks borrowed the samekh<\/em>, named it Chi<\/em>, and used it for the digraph \/ks\/. The Romans took Chi<\/em> from Greek alphabets for their letter X<\/em> and the numeral “10.” Old English adopted the Roman alphabet where it eventually replaced the German runic alphabet around the 7th century. This orthographic relay spans about 1,800 years of history. Since the medieval period, we’ve been using X<\/em> and the Roman alphabet for almost fourteen centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Latin<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

X<\/em> is a bit of a phonetic chameleon when it comes to spelling and pronunciation in English. X<\/em> is used for the digraph \/ks\/ in words such as wax<\/em> and fox.<\/em> In words like auxiliary<\/em> and exhaust<\/em>, the X<\/em> changes to a \/gz\/ sound. X<\/em> can also be a \/z\/ sound (xylophone<\/em>), a hard \/k\/ sound (excite<\/em>), and a \/kzh\/ sound (luxury<\/em>). X<\/em> can be silent as well, as in Sioux<\/em> or the French loan-word faux<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The letter X<\/em> is used in a variety of commercial, academic, social, and religious contexts. We rely on these contexts to tell us whether to engage with the letter as a sound, a classifier, or a symbol. Below is a long short-list that exemplifies the power of X<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mathematics<\/h3>\n\n\n\n