英语词汇x的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

X. The 24th letter in our alphabet represents the 14th letter of the Greek alphabet, xi. The Romans used X to denote the number 10 and x in mathematics generally means “an unknown quantity.” One theory holds that the X stands for a kiss because it originally represented a highly stylized picture of two mouths touching—x. Furthermore, in early times illiterates often signed documents with a St. Andrew’s cross of X and kissed that X to show their good faith (as they did with any cross or the Bible), which reinforced the association. But these explana- tions may be folk etymology, as may the story that mathemati- cally the X is a “multiplier”—in this case of love and delight.

词汇	x
词源	X. The 24th letter in our alphabet represents the 14th letter of the Greek alphabet, xi. The Romans used X to denote the number 10 and x in mathematics generally means “an unknown quantity.” One theory holds that the X stands for a kiss because it originally represented a highly stylized picture of two mouths touching—x. Furthermore, in early times illiterates often signed documents with a St. Andrew’s cross of X and kissed that X to show their good faith (as they did with any cross or the Bible), which reinforced the association. But these explana- tions may be folk etymology, as may the story that mathemati- cally the X is a “multiplier”—in this case of love and delight.
随便看	america american american english american indian language words americanism america-s cup america the beautiful americium ameslan amethyst amex amicus curiae a mike fink a mile wide a foot deep too thick to drink and too thin to plow a million dollar body and a ten cent mind amish a miss is as good as a mile ammonia amn’t i a modest man with much to be modest about amok among a monus amortize amp