Well, what other word do you use to teach a kid the alphabet? Xenophoe? Xenomorph?
xenophobe
That way you can teach the concepts of bigotry and tolerance from a young age.
I don’t know, a 5 year old might think that’s a cool word and say they want to be xenophobe when they grow up.
See, this way we can spot them earlier. Way too many of them go on to live their dream—when they could have had their course adjusted at the beginning.
Ok sure but I grew up in the 90s and ended up becoming a xylophone and Im not sure that’s any better.
Xolo - hairless Mexican dog
Xenops - small bird
(I don’t use X-Ray because saying the letter X doesn’t make either of the letter’s major phonetic sounds.)
saying the letter X doesn’t make either of the letter’s major phonetic sounds
Excuse me?
X, spoken as a letter = ecks
Hard phonetic sound = zz, same as the letter Z (almost always at the beginning of a word. Xylophone)
Soft phonetic sound = ksk (never at the beginning of a word. Box, oxen)
(disclaimer: American English, ymmv.)
By this definition, Xolo wouldn’t fit because the x in Xolo is somewhere between sh- and ch-. It’s a Nahuatl word and many (if not all) Xs are sh-/ch-.
Sorry for being pedantic.
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xoloitzcuintle is underrepresented though
To be fair, most English words aren’t even really English
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Don’t be sorry, you’re not pedantic enough.
The Nahuatl word Xoloitzcuintle is something the vast majority of English-speaking Americans can’t read, let alone spell or pronounce correctly. So the more digestible word Xolo was adopted to identify Mexican hairless dogs (hard X, hard O, L, hard O).
Xenon? Xylem? Xenobiology? Xanthoma? Xylocarp? Xiphoid? Xerosis? Xyster? The scrabble favorites xi and xu?
There’s loads of cool words that begin with x
Xylophone: fun, colorful, easy for a kid to remember as a cute little instrument
Xenon: An inert gas used in… MRI scans, I think?
X-ray is probably the only other ‘X’ word with more real-world representation than xylophone, and as pointed out above, that’s not quite representative of how the letter is used phonetically in the rest of the language.
Xylem is a major component of almost all the plants you see. I’m not sure how much more real-world representation you can get…
By “real-world representation”, I mean “how often the word is actually used in the real world.” There are hundreds of trillions of neutrinos passing through you all the time, but I’d still think “nest” is a better word for kids.
It’s rarely used phonetically the same as xylophone. Usually it makes the [ks] sound, it only ever makes the [z] sound at the beginning of words. X-ray is actually much more in line with the typical phonetic representation in English.
Xenomorph, gotta teach them young that sometimes it’s best to just nuke the whole thing from orbit.
X-TREME
The name Xavier works because it teaches them to pronounce the letter correctly
I see someone’s a marimba fan.
Marimba! Marimba!!
The word “xylophone” comes from the Ancient Greek ξύλον (xúlon) meaning “wood” and φωνή (phōnḗ) meaning “sound” or “voice.”
So this instrument with metal bars that you hit with a hammer to produce sound is called a…?
That’s right! A “glockenspiel!”
(I stole this from someone else on the internet.)
Big xylophone is gerrymandering the alphabet.
As a father of toddlers learning ABCs, I agree. I’ve seen some weird side steps, like X-ray Fish for an animal themed one, or Xerox— a company name. Or just straight up Fox because they couldn’t think of Xylophone or any other X words.
But, what’s the age appropriate alternative?
X formerly known as Twitter?
Xitter!
Xavier, Charles
Mr X to the Z Xzibit
No it’s not enough.
Ita a great sound, it’s woody, it’s haunting it’s under-utilised in rock music.
Possibly overrepresented on a couple Frank Zappa albums…
Possibly overrepresentedProminently featured on a couple Frank Zappa albums…Kidding aside, it’s all a matter of taste! Luckily with Zappa there are tons of flavors to choose from 😆
I know that’s right. We all fuckin love Ruth!
