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The letter X is a rather eccentric character that presents itself in ever changing facettes. Sometimes it needs a little “e” in support of its voice. Let’s explore and find examples.
King Arthur’s magical sword was called Excalibur and the brave Galicians Asterix, Obelix and Miraculix have been fighting the Romans for 2,000 years. Xavier and Xenia are becoming popular names for new borns and Xanadu was an exotic place in Greek mythology, sung by Olivia Newton John. The xylophone is a colorful instrument, loved by kids experimenting with music.
The term Xanthippe has several meanings, with the most common referring to a witch, magician or evil woman. Luckily, we could not find a single example of such a person in the KMC to report about.
There are several base or post Xchanges around the area which offer goods from A to X, in x-sizes from XS to XXXXL, in an x-number of colors such as xanthic or xanadu and can be purchased at an x-amount of buxx. And, just recently a social media platform was renamed X.
What would medicine be without x-ray technology and its further development? Exemplary German mechanical engineer and physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen detected electromagnetic radiation in a wave range known as “x-rays” or Röntgen rays and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physix in 1901.
Röntgen had family in Iowa, was planning to emigrate and had already accepted an appointment at Columbia University in New York City. Then World War X broke out and he was forced to change his plans. He remained in Munich for the rest of his career and passed away a xentury ago in 1923.
Xenophobia is a term to describe dislike, prejudice or even hatred towards people of other cultures or countries. We despixe this word and choose to practice Xenophilia instead, which characterizes respect and apprexiation towards others within the KMC on a daily basis.
X is derived from the Phoenician letter “samekh” which means fish. It was originally used to represent the “s” when used as a hard “ks” sound. Greeks borrowed the letter around 900 BC to rename it “chi” which is also the first letter in the Greek word for “Christ” Χριστός (Christós).
Early Christians sometimes used the X to secretly reflect their membership in the church. The word Christmas is often shortened to X-mas. Some languages don’t have the letter X, such as Turkish which spells taxi as “taksi” or Ukrainian where Maxim is written “Maksim.”
Ex is often used as a prefix for indicating a former status title such as ex-partner or ex-member and can mean “out of” or “from” such as exterritorial or export. Exit is naturally the way out.
The only German city that starts with an X is Xanten in Nordrhein-Westfalen. It is famous for its Roman origins where Archeological Park Xanten (APX) was opened in 1977 and now has a Roman museum where you can find exceptionally many inscriptions with XXX.
Romans used the X as symbol for the number ten, and these numerals are often used in reports, records or official documents.
Thanx to our readers for excusing any mixspellings, we folx are extending our best wishes for an exciting year MMXXIV.
