X is for... (How alphabet books dealt with the letter X before x-rays and xylophones.)

Public Domain Review ^ | May 2, 2024 | Adam Green

[edwinland]

The illustrations are cute. A fun piece from a great source.

[Verginius Rufus]

Several notable Greeks had names starting with X (ksi): Xenophon, Xanthippus (father of Pericles), Xanthippe (wife of Socrates), Xenophanes of Colophon, etc.

Xerxes is the Greek rendition of the Persian king's name (quite different from the original).

[Rio]

[xoxox]

would post a clip of the “I’m Gonna Play My Xylophone” guy from The Gong Show, but can’t find (and that fake weirdo on youtube does’t count).

[fidelis]

That was fun. Even taking into consideration the inevitable changes in cultural references from one generation to the next, previous generations were much more influenced by classical education than is ours. The average schoolboy of, say, the early 1800’s had a much more broad exposure to histories of ancient Greece and Rome (not to mention the Bible) than does today’s average graduate student.

[Dr. Sivana]

Surprised the Catholic book went for Xistus and not Xavier.

[Billthedrill]

Good heavens, Ex-Lax, of course! And Sex. That's a very important one. And Six. It's even more important not to confuse the two.

I've always thought that Xanthippe got a bad rap. She put up with the old goat for longer than I would...

[Red Badger]

Why even have a letter ‘X’ at all? It’s usually pronounced as a ‘Z’ anyways.

Xenophobe...................

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

That verse about Xerxes at the link appears in the Bumper Book from 1946 which I read as a child. I have a pristine copy sealed in Mylar. Latest estimate puts its worth at about $300 dollars. I paid $40 for it some years ago. I think I’ll let it age some more.

[bigbob]

Back then it was how many people signed their names.

[Verginius Rufus]

For a while the Nation of Islam had people replace their “slave name” (surname) with X, hence Malcolm X (no relation to Pius X). Somehow they did not foresee having two members with the same first name.

[Magnum44]

I usually never get past “’C’ is for cookie”

[Songcraft]

Cause "X" marks the spot.

(Also, how would anybody be able to tweet today if they didn't have "X"?)

[Songcraft]

The next page is "'D' is for Diaper".

[Red Badger]

In math, ‘X’ is an unknown...................

[Songcraft]

Yeah, so there's that, too.   😎

(That's my biden shades.)

[thesearethetimes...]

Awesome article! From a time when literacy was valued.

[lepton]

There’s no X in Twitter.

[fruser1]

I’d rather try to figure out what to do w/an absence of “X” words in my dictionary than try to sort a chinese one.

[Songcraft]

It's a virtual "X".