英语俚语天天说 第150期:为什么把Christmas写成Xmas？你造吗？

 　　Christmas is also sometimes known as Xmas.

　　Some people don't think it's correct to call Christmas Xmas as that takes the Christ¹(Jesus) out of Christmas. Christmas有时候也被写为Xmas。有人觉得这样是不对的，因为把Christ去掉了。

　　But that is not quite right! In the Greek language and alphabet, the letter that looks like an X is the Greek letter chi / Χ which is the first letter of the Greek word for Christ.

　　但是这种写法（Xmas）其实是对的。

　　因为在希腊语和字母中，X是上帝耶稣基督这个词的第一个字母（X=Chi）

　　Its use dates back to the 16th century. 这种用法可以追溯到16世纪。

1 Christ   

n.基督，救世主，耶稣

参考例句：

• I regarded him as the Christ.我把他当作救世主。
• Christ preached that we should love each other.基督在布道中说人们应该互爱。