PlayStation UK created a horrific uproar when they proclaimed that the 🞩 button on the PlayStation controller is called “cross”, and not “X”.
Sure, but I’m still going to call it “X”.
In the United States, the term “cross” is used to refer almost exclusively to the religious symbol 🕇 or shapes similar to it, with the same vertical orientation. It certainly is not commonly used to refer to the rotated symbol 🞩.¹ The name of the rotated symbol is almost uniformly “X”.
The game of Noughts and Crosses is called Tic-Tac-Toe in the States.
¹ We also do not use the word “cross” to mean “angry”. A sentence like “She was cross about the delay” is distinctly British English.
In Russian (a least when I still lived there, in the tail end of the Soviet era) the default meaning of the equivalent to cross (krest) is what looks like an X. The "plus" sign is only called a cross in religious contexts and in the term "red cross". Even though the Cyrillic alphabet has a letter that looks like X (a hard H), the name for that letter is only used to name the...
I’d say this is one of those places in language that is sufficiently nuanced that there is no one simple rule that works in all contexts. X is “ex”, “cross”, “by”, “times”, “ten”, or something else entirely depending on context.
When a teacher marks your work in the US then, if you get it right I'm pretty sure you folks say get a check (which we in Britain would call a tick). Do you get an "X" if you get it wrong? In the UK we call it a "cross".
Another interesting titbit: The Japanese equivalent of a tick is a circle (O). A cross is still a cross in Japan. So, naturally, the "O" was...
Yes, the “X” to indicate an incorrect answer is generally called an “ex”, if it is given a name at all. Usually we just say “You got three wrong” rather than “You got three X’s.” And then there are countries where the check-mark is is used to indicate that the answer is wrong. It’s all very confusing.
"It certainly is not commonly used to refer to the rotated symbol 🞩.¹ "
A Brit asks: Does this mean those splendid US yellow road signs with 'XING' written on them are a rarity? Or that they are not understood in their native land?
A misuse of X that does make me 'X' is the current habit of US podcasters who should know better saying 'So-and-so is a 4 EX programmer'. What they mean, natch, is that...
I think XING signs are pretty rare. But when when I see them, I interpret the X as an abbreviation for “Cross”, much like the X in Xmas as an abbreviation for “Christ”, but I wouldn’t name the letter as “Cross”. That is, if I were telling somebody how the sign was spelled I’d say “ex eye en gee” and not “cross eye en gee”.
This use of “XING” exists only in traffic signs. I find it problematic, personally. And yes, in the U.S., it is common to say the X in “X” as the letter “X”. It defies logic, but that’s how it is.
I smell the trend of “You might call it ‘Notification Area’, but I’m still going to call it ‘System Tray'” in recent updates to Windows and its documentation.
BTW, according to M-W dictionary editors, the “X” in “X-mas” is the (religious) cross.
I thought it was an abbreviation of the Greek spelling of Christ.
You’re right, it is, but that adds another player to this thread, because the “X” is the Greek letter chi which looks like our X. So now we’ve got “X”, “cross” and “chi”.
In Norway we have solved this problem long time ago, we have 2 words for cross:
kors (the religious kind) and kryss (non religious)
It is based on context rather than appearance (appearance may be the same, +,x,whatever)
So for me x and kryss is both valid usage for the controller button:-)
Huh, I wonder whether criss-cross has a related derivation.
criss-cross: kryss og tvers (probably)
So, if the × is pronounced “X” instead of “cross”, is the ○ pronounced “O” (or “zero”) instead of “circle.”
The ○ shape can be called “circle” or “O”. But the × shape is almost always called “X”, not “cross”. The name “cross” is generally reserved for the 🕇 orientation.
I wonder if Sony also pronounces the names of certain Apple products as “Mac O-S cross” and the “iPhone cross”.
That’d be better than calling it the ‘Ten’ button.
To be fair, between Xmas and Moto X, I can see why Sony UK has become confused and given the wrong name to its controller button.
But how do we say 𝑨×𝑩, where 𝑨 and 𝑩 are vectors?
True, there are niche uses, but in general, the x is not called a cross. That’s why I said “not commonly used” and “almost uniformly”.