What is an Xtian?

I have seen several of the forum's denizens referring to 'Xtians'. This seems to mean 'Christians' in general. Am I right in assuming this and could somebody please tell me where the term came from?PS: What does IMO stand for?

defenderofthefaith writes:

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I have seen several of the forum's denizens referring to 'Xtians'. This seems to mean 'Christians' in general. Am I right in assuming this and could somebody please tell me where the term came from?

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Yes, "Xian" means "Christian." It comes from the Greek tradition of using the letter chi as an abbreviation for "Christ" since the first letter of "Christ" in Greek is chi. It is where we get the term "Xmas" to refer to "Christmas" which was common throughout Europe in the 16th century.It is not an insult; it is not a sneer.

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PS: What does IMO stand for?

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In My Opinion.Variations are "IMHO" for In My Humble Opinion and "IMNSHO" for In My Not So Humble Opinion.If you do a Google search for "internet acronyms," you'll find many lists to let you know what things like AFAIK (As Far As I Know) and BTW (By The Way) mean.------------------
Rrhain
WWJD? JWRTFM!

HI,Could I start by saying that the correct term is 'Xian', the 't' is not required.The letter 'X' is representative of the initial letter 'Chi' of the Greek word Kristos which means Christ.Essentially it is an abbreviation, in the same way that writing Xmas is short for Christmas.IMO = In My Opinion.Brian.

And Rrhain wins by a neck! LOL[This message has been edited by Brian, 11-17-2003]

Thanks. You both were pretty fast on the draw there.

While we're at it, OOL = ?

Origin of life, I would think
regards

Or "Out of luck".

Actually I'm just testing whether or not my attempt at posting will be successful this time . . . but, to actually offer something that seems to be in keeping with the nature of this forum, although "Xian" doesn't necessarily qualify as a sneer, I think some people use it as such. It's kind of like the usage of the Confederate flag; yes, some people could just innocently want to honor the memory of people, but it is also used (perhaps much more commonly) for less noble purposes.

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although "Xian" doesn't necessarily qualify as a sneer, I think some people use it as such.

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I know I purposely began using Xtian (though from now I will use Xian) because it helped abbreviate typing. If you come up with a shortening for Xian that cannot be seen as a sneer I will happily use that instead.As it is the term "evos" has definitely been used in a sneering fashion toward those who believe in evolution, but I was more than happy to use it myself (and in reference to myself) for the same reason as I used Xian.I think people should get over the possible connotations of abbreviations.------------------
holmes

zephyr writes:

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While we're at it, OOL = ?

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Context, please?In chat, OOL is generally Out Of Luck.
In computer science, OOL is generally Object Oriented Language.
Around here, OOL could very well mean Origin Of Life.------------------
Rrhain
WWJD? JWRTFM!

Just in case you're curious, also related to ancient greek, is the "Jesus Fish" that you may have seen that looks like IXOYE. It actually is the greek letters for "Icthus" (fish). It was used as an early symbol for Christians when they were viewed as cult in Greek society, and had to stay underground - it was in reference to the line in Mark, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.". It's also an acronym for "Iesous Christos, Theou Uios, Soter", which means "Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior".------------------
"Illuminant light,
illuminate me."

I was just responding to your post, and not really to voice any possibility of offense taken. Do you think that "yacs" is used without intended offense? How about "nats"? (That refers to those who are "naturalistically assumptive, temporally speaking.") These types of abbreviations don't really bother me. And the only reason I don't cotton to the "X-mas" is because I think it functions more toward the move to secularize (beyond this evc forum) than to remind people of the term's etymology.

Xian is a term mainly used by satanists who are phobic over the pagan-word Christoi. Probably popular with yid and nigs too.

"Yids and Nigs"?What do those words mean?