X (Cyrillic)

The origin of the Cyrillic letter (and the verb arachnid) is the Greek letter chi (Χ, χ) ; the main verb form is of unclear origin (usually also goes back to the Greek "chi", but at the same time the complete asymmetry of the result is incomprehensible; there is also a version with a modified Latin h ).

In antiquity, there was a second glagolic mark, the so-called "arachnid" - in the form of a circle with four hooks in the corners: Ⱒ . It is found in the monuments 4 times: 1 time in the Assemanian Gospel and 3 times in the Sinai Psalter . In all cases, the sign conveyed the first letter in the word "hlm" (hill). According to the "Alphabet Prayer" by Konstantin Preslavsky and Munich Abechedarius , "arachnid x" - Ⱒ - entered the Glagolic alphabet as a separate (33rd in a row) letter. ^[one]

The form of the Cyrillic letter X had no noticeable options, except that in cursive writing it could be depicted in one stroke without taking the pen from the paper, which usually looked like a handwritten α . With the introduction of the civil font, the design of the letter X was identified with the form of the Latin letter "X" .

In modern Russian, the letter X denotes a dull velar fricative consonant: hard [ x ] or soft [ xʲ ] (softens before e and ; combinations with other softening vowels and are rare and are found only in borrowings: Höyzing, Hübner, Pyhäjärvi, Houston ). It is practically not combined with s : it happens only in borrowings ( Arkhyz ). Combinations with e are also rare: in borrowings in this case, fluctuations in writing e / e are common: happening / hepping, hash / hash, taekwondo / taekwondo , etc., and in complex words there is a syllable between x and e : two-story, super-energetic .

In other Slavic languages, mild pronunciation is less common than in Russian.

In Serbian, the pronunciation of the letter X is weakened to [h] and even to the complete disappearance of the sound, in connection with which Vuk Karadzic initially did not include this letter at all in the reformed Serbian alphabet , which greatly changed the appearance of many words: do (x) ovnik, patrikar (x ), (X) oration, (x) Rishanism, (X) Rvat .

In Moksha, it denotes the sound [x], and is also used in the digraphs lx [l̥] and px [r̥] (cf. Latin lh and rh ).

In Chechen grammar, the letter X is the gaitar (indicator) of the hottalurg of the dozhar (material case).

• Because of the shape of the letter X, its name dy was often used to mean something cruciform: Dahl ^[2] mentions the “game of cherikonics ” (tic-tac-toe) and the expression “legs with a dick” as the opposite of “legs with a wheel”. From here comes the word pohehr (originally - cross out crosswise; cf. Leskov: Vladyka decided to remove the consistor’s decision on the appointment of an investigation as a sheriff ^[3] ).
• Being the first letter of an obscene word , the word dick has been actively used since 19th century as its euphemism ^[4] (cf. English eff (name of the letter F ) instead of fuck ). As a result, by the 1990s in the USSR, the word “dick” and its derivatives (for example, “to cheat”) began to be perceived by many as taboo, since the original names of the Cyrillic letters were forgotten in the bulk of the population. This fact left its mark on the use of the word "dick" in the post-Soviet era, despite the change in attitude to obscene vocabulary ^[5] .

In HTML, an uppercase letter: X can be written as & # 1061; or & # x425 ;, and lowercase x as & # 1093; or & # x445 ;.

• H (Latin)
• X (Latin)

• Bulich S.K. ,. X // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Karsky E.F. ,. Slavic Cyril Paleography / Otv. ed. Acad. V.I. Borkovsky . - 2nd ed., Facsimile . - L., M. (fax.): From the Academy of Sciences of the USSR; from the "Science" (fax.), 1928, 1979 (fax.). - S. 200. - 494 p. - 2700 copies.