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 originated as
the Phoenician letter samech, which has been translated as prop, support, post or a fish.
X was related to the Greek
xei, which sounded like "ks". The Romans adopted the Greek xei
but used the form of the Greek chi. X was the last letter of the Roman alphabet until around 50 AD.
Several authorities — Ben Jonson among them — consider X to be a less than legitimate letter
because the ks would replaced its sound so easily. Though X is the least used letter in English, its a
well known symbol of Christ (Xmas), was used as a signature by illiterate people throughout history, and has always “marked the spot”.
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X-HEIGHT: The distance between the baseline and the midline of an alphabet, which is normally the approximate height of the unextended lowercase letter — a, c, e, m, n, o, r, s, u, v, w, x and z — and the torso of b, d, h, k, p, q, and y. The relation of x-height to cap height, and the relation of x-height to length of extenders are two important characteristics of any bicameral Latin typeface.
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