When you want to say kisses and hugs in a letter, e-mail, ect... you use "x" and "o". What does the "x" stand for as well as the "o"?

gdec1

"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 explanations may be folk etymology, as may the story that mathematically the X is a 'multiplier' -- in this case of love and delight." From the 'Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins' by Robert Hendrickson (Facts on File, New York, 1997)." http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=450133 Aug 02 06, 9:47 PM

zbeckabee

It is debatable which letter represents which act. Some interpret X as the crossed arms of a hug and O as the puckered lips of a kiss. However, the interpretation assumed in the following, in which X represents the four lips of a kiss and O the four arms of a hug, is more common. The use of XOXO goes back to the use of an X or cross, which was considered as good as a sworn oath in times before most people could write and therefore used the X in the same way a signature is used today — a mark of one's word. An X at the end of a letter or document was often kissed as a seal of honesty, in much the same way one would kiss a Bible or kiss the fingers after making the sign of the Christian cross, thus the X came to represent a kiss in modern times. The origins of the O as a hug are not generally known, although it is speculated that it may represent the arms wrapped around someone being hugged. Another thought is that it came from Jewish immigrants who would sign with an O instead of an X because they did not wish to mark their word with the obviously Christian cross the X represented. It is also said that X represents kisses because the letter X in Spanish is named "equis" which has a similar pronunciation as "a kiss". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugs_and_Kisses Aug 02 06, 9:51 PM