a longlost friend has just emailed me, signing off:
Warm abracos
?? First time this word has come my way. Is it much used?
Wikipedia says
Abracos means hugs and kisses:
'Hugs and Kisses is a term for a sequence of the letters X and O, e.g. XOXO,
typically used to express affection or good friendship at the end of a written
letter or email.
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. For example the Oxford
English Dictionary states that X is "used to represent a kiss, esp. in the
subscription to a letter." [1]
But in more conventional modern language, the X is most often referred to as a
Hug denoted by the way it resembles the form a hug when viewing the hugger. One
also notices the similar resemblance of puckered lips to the O which denotes a
kiss.
Additionally, there is a more simple interpretation, based on the pronunciation
of the letters X (sounds like 'kiss') and O (sounds like 'hold', as in 'I hold
you').
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 Christian cross
the X represented.'
------------------------------------------------------------
This email was sent from Netspace Webmail: http://www.netspace.net.au
|