X and O and Kisses and Hugs

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Andrea Warfel, and I live in Hazlitt, Michigan, in the greater Lansing area.

Gotcha. Welcome to the show. What’s up?

Well, I’m here with my six-year-old daughter, Neve.

I’m raising up a couple of word nerds here, and she asked me a very good question the other day that I did not know the answer to, but I said we should call Grant and Martha because I bet they can tell us.

Oh, boy.

All right, so I will pass you over to Neve. Here she is.

Okay.

Why does XOXO stand for hugs and kisses?

Why does XOXO stand for hugs and kisses?

Neve, what a good question.

What made you think about that?

We were texting back and forth with Daddy, who was off working in Detroit, and he wrote back XOXO, and we got to wondering if the O was for hugs, like the arms around the body, but then why the X for kisses?

Because when you go to kiss someone, what shape does your mouth make?

Oh!

Yeah.

You’re right.

Well, we don’t 100% know for sure why we use X for kisses and O’s for hugs. But the best theory that people who study these things have come up with is that the X used to be a way to sign important documents to show that you were being faithful and honest and true.

And you would actually kiss the spot, which kind of confers a blessing upon the document or shows your sincerity.

And that X has to do with the cross, the Christian cross that Jesus died on.

And in fact, in many cases, you will find people talk about that X not as an X, but as a bunch of crosses, even though they’re on their side.

And that’s the best theory that we’ve found so far.

So it was a way to sign documents, and then you might kiss it to show, kind of make it formal, to formalize it.

Kissing is always involved in rituals and things, even now, right?

So the O’s are the hugs.

The O’s are the hugs.

Many people just think it was a way to indicate the physical arms encircling someone else.

Okay, and that’s what we thought, but we just couldn’t figure out where that X came from.

Yeah, so the X is the kiss, though, and the O is the hug.

We’re glad you’re talking about that and raising new word nerds.

Yeah, we try.

Her name is even a portmanteau.

She goes by Neve for short.

Nice.

And you’re named Neva Lena, and we were six people together to be Neva Lena.

Oh, you’re so sweet.

Well, thank you guys for your time and for answering our questions.

Thank you, Andrea.

Thank you, Neve.

All right.

Neve, will you call us again sometime?

Yes.

All right.

Excellent.

Bye-bye.

Take care now.

Bye.

Bye-bye.

Oh, how sweet is that?

We don’t 100% know that that’s the origin of the exos. We do find X and O’s being used quite a ways back, 100, 150 years.

But sometimes it’s not clear. Sometimes it just looks like they might be putting a row of X’s to separate two sections because there’s nothing else listed about kisses or love or anything like that.

So it’s one of those origin uncertain ones.

Oh, those are so frustrating, aren’t they?

But how great to see that young curiosity.

I know, right?

And that little voice.

I know.

Well, we welcome your little voice or your big voice, 877-929-9673.

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