kisses

[violetblue]

Why do we put X to represent a kiss? It seems just to be a thing in English, I haven;t seen any other languages use it. Is it just a British convention? Why do we choose X and not, say, k for example?

[Fibonacci]

see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugs_and_Kisses

[Quizmonster]

'X' has been used to represent a kiss from as long ago as the middle of the 18th century. As to why �X' means that, it's probably because the letter actually sounds very much like 'ks', which could be seen as an abbreviation of 'kiss'. In addition, I've always imagined it might also represent two faces seen side-on, with lips puckered up and touching...ie a kiss! It may take a bit of imagination, but try it.

[janetsflower]

I understand it to be a christian thing - Jesus died on the cross because he loved us all hence the cross symbolises love which is why we us an X to express love/kisses or at least thats what we were taught years ago at sunday school

[wee-janine]

I have two theories for this
1it is phonetic, you know the way it sounds?
2it could be a throw back to when a lot of people could not read or write. They would dictate a letter to some one and then sign for themselves, with an X.
I know these theories are probably non sense but i thought plausable.