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From Washington Post: And in a discussion chain on the American Dialect Society, linguist Ben Zimmer, in a search of newspaper archives, found “xoxo” and “xoxoxo” used in personal ads from about 1972. The reason why hugs and kisses is rendered XOXO and not OXOX is unknown. Maybe it because of the influence of Tic-tac-toe.
This tradition started with the Medieval practice of allowing those who could not write to sign documents with an "X". This was done before witnesses, and the signer placed a kiss upon the "X" to show sincerity. This is how the kiss came to be synonymous with the letter "X", and how the "X" came to be commonly used at the end of letters as kiss ...
Edit: Another Wikipedia page:. The big Z. It is a convention in American comics that the sound of a snore can be reduced to a single letter Z.
It goes all the way back to Middle Ages, a time when few people could write and read. In my opinion, it has to do with signing a letter using XOXO to mean hugs and kisses. Some sources claim that X has religious connotations and mean 'Christ', so by signing X, you're actually saying In Christ's name, I assert___.
Since a flying fuck is an imaginary thing to most people, this means you care so little that you wouldn't even give the thing something non-existent. Basically, it means I don't care. damn (v.) late 13c., "to condemn," from Old French damner "damn, condemn; convict, blame; injure," derivative of Latin damnare "to adjudge guilty; to doom; to ...
Whelm is labeled as "archaic" in NOAD, as it has fallen out of use. Left in its wake are the would-be superlative overwhelm (which, rather than actually meaning "more than whelmed", has simply taken over its parent's definition) and its opposite underwhelm.
They are quite common in Japanese, which also has psychomimes (words that act like onomatopoeia for emotions, thought processes, states of mind). Phonomimes use word sounds to represent auditory stimuli, such as a bark, a meow, or a honk. Phenomimes use word sounds to represent non-auditory stimuli, such as a flash, a twinkle, or a grope.
8. Almost all words can convey sarcasm, but the trick is in how you use them. Apart from italics and "quotes", a standard way of conveying sarcasm is the hyperbole, meaning that you very clearly overstate something - in case of sarcasm, to mean the opposite. Be very aware that sarcasm is one of the most difficult emotions to convey in written ...
@ChristianDavén I know you're no doubt well aware of this and were joking, but for the record (considering the purpose of the site), I'll note that Xmas is actually Χ-mas where the Χ is a Greek chi, not a Latin X, and that Χ has been an abbreviation of Χριστός (Christ) since before even Old English existed, especially combined with the letter rho (Ρ) to form the Chi Rho (☧) the ...
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