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Criss-crossed palm leaves (photo by Neeraj Elkunchwar) |
CRISS-CROSS
Noun, adjective, & adverb. Also crisscross. Early 17th century.
[Reduced from CHRIST-CROSS, latterly treated as reduplication of CROSS noun.]
A1 noun. = CHRIST-CROSS. Now archaic & dialectical except Historical. E17
A2 noun. A crossing of lines, currents, etc; a network of crossing lines. L19
A3 noun. The state of being at cross purposes. E20
B adj. In crossing lines; marked by crossings or intersections. M19
C adv. Crosswise; at cross purposes. L19
Here's an everyday word whose origin might surprise you: criss-cross, which comes from Christ's cross. Its origin is in the convention of putting the mark of a cross before the first letter of the alphabet in children's hornbooks. This mark was called Christ's cross, and eventually the 'Christ' part was treated as a reduplication of 'cross' and the pronunciation of Christ changed to criss, just as happened with Christmas. However, unlike Christmas, the spelling of criss-cross evolved to reflect this change in pronunciation.
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An abecedarian's hornbook, showing the Christ's cross top left (photo by Chris Devers) |
Do please leave your crossest comments in the box below.
And this is why the alphabet was called the criss-cross row.
ReplyDeleteA2 is more simply described as a grid.
ReplyDelete