• luciferofastora@feddit.org
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    10 days ago

    They apparently meant Christians, using the Greek Χ (Chi), the starting letter of Χριστιανός (Christianos) as an abbreviation. I’ve seen it a few times, but I’m not personally a fan of it due to the obscurity outside of the niche that understands it.

    • Limonene@lemmy.world
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      10 days ago

      Maybe… but they wrote “X” (latin “Ex”), not “χ” (Greek “Chi”). I’m still thinking “Twitter users” is the most plausible meaning of “Xians” here.

      • IzzyScissor@lemmy.world
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        10 days ago

        Xians = Christians in the same way that Xmas = Christmas. Sure, the Greek would be more accurate, but it’s a whole lot easier to use the button that’s already on the keyboard.

      • luciferofastora@feddit.org
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        10 days ago

        Using the Latin lookalike instead of the actual letter is fairly common when you’re using a Latin keyboard. I happen to have Greek installed on mine, but I don’t expect most people would. Besides, an uppercase Χ is visually indistinguishable from X in many fonts.

      • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        i’ve seen xtians more than xians. and i’m a godsdamned church musician who works primarily in christian churches