Consider the letter X

'Consider the letter X . . . which comes from an Egyptian hieroglyph. As a rotated cross it acts, arguably, on our collective unconscious. It is what Jung called an archetype'symbols that are embedded in the collective unconscious of our species. The X was originally a pictograph and thus a symbol associated primarily with priests. It became an alphabet character later'every alphabet character, in fact, was born as a pictograph. The first alphabetic system emerged in the Middle East around 1000 BCE, and was then transported by the Phoenicians (a people from a territory on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, located largely in modern-day Lebanon) to Greece. It contained signs for consonant sounds only. When it reached Greece, signs for vowel sounds were added to it, making the Greek system the first full-fledged alphabetic one. . . .

In a fascinating book titled Sign after the X (2000), Marina Roy has traced the history of this sign, showing that it has had very little to do with phonetics at any period of its history. Here are a few of its traditional meanings:

' any unknown or unnamed factor, thing, or person
' the signature of any illiterate person
' the sign for mistake
' cancellation
' the unknown, especially in mathematics
' the multiplication symbol
' the Roman numeral ten
' a mechanical defect
' on a map a location
' choice on a ballot
' a motion-picture rating
' a symbol for Christ
' the symbol for a kiss
' the symbol for Chronos, the Greek god of Time
' the symbol for planet Saturn in Greek and Roman mythology.

Today, it stands for youth culture (Generation X), adventure comic heroes (X-Men), and erotic movies (X-rated).'

'Marcel Danesi, Brands, 2006.