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Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minuteThe familiar explanation is that people once signed documents with an X and kissed the mark to make their promise binding. It is a popular story, but the available evidence does not establish that historical chain. What we can trace more clearly is the written use of X to represent a kiss—and even the earliest examples are disputed.
How X came to stand for a kiss
The cross-shaped mark is often said to have become a symbol of a kiss because people who could not write used an X as a signature, then kissed it as a sign of sincerity. That explanation is plausible, but it should not be treated as proven: the sources do not document a continuous path from kissed signatures to the affectionate X in letters and cards. Dictionary.com presents the story as a commonly told explanation, while Psychology Today notes that the origin remains uncertain (Dictionary.com, February 12, 2022; Psychology Today, January 17, 2024).
There is another reason to be cautious about the signature story: a mark on a document does not, by itself, prove that its signer could not write. An Oxford Academic study on literacy in rural England warns against treating marks and signatures as direct measures of literacy (“Rethinking Literacy in Rural England, 1550–1700,” October 12, 2022). That finding does not disprove that some people kissed marks, but it does mean the mark alone cannot establish the popular account.
What the earliest written examples show
Accounts disagree about when X was first used to mean a kiss. The Washington Post reported in 2014 that the Oxford English Dictionary attributed an early example to a 1763 letter by Gilbert White, which ended with repeated x’s. But Psychology Today’s 2024 account identifies Florence Montgomery’s novel Seaforth (1878) as the OED’s earliest evidence and notes that White’s x’s may have represented blessings rather than kisses. The Online Etymology Dictionary gives a 1765 date, adding to the disagreement (The Washington Post, February 13, 2014; Online Etymology Dictionary, “X”).
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Montgomery’s passage is a particularly clear dated example because it explicitly describes the marks as kisses. As quoted by Psychology Today, the novel says: “This letter […] ends with the inevitable row of kisses,—sometimes expressed by × × × × ×, and sometimes by o o o o o o, according to the taste of the young scribbler.” It shows that writers used rows of crosses or circles to represent kisses by 1878; it does not establish when the practice began.
The evidence can be read more accurately by separating what the records say from what later explanations infer:
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| Evidence or claim | What it establishes | What remains uncertain |
|---|---|---|
| Gilbert White’s 1763 letter, as reported by The Washington Post | An early letter ending with repeated x’s is cited in the account. | Whether the x’s meant kisses or blessings. |
| Florence Montgomery’s Seaforth (1878), as described by Psychology Today | A literary passage explicitly calls rows of crosses or circles kisses. | Whether it is the first actual use, rather than the earliest clear example discussed in that account. |
| The kissed-signature explanation | A widely repeated theory about how X may have acquired its affectionate meaning. | A documented link connecting the signature practice to the modern written sign-off. |
What XOXO means—and what is less certain about O
Today, XOXO is commonly read as “kisses and hugs,” especially as a warm sign-off in personal messages. Valentine’s Day cards help keep the convention familiar, but the sources do not show that Valentine’s Day created X as a symbol for a kiss.
The kiss association is more clearly represented in the surviving written example than the history of the O. Montgomery’s passage shows that circles, too, could be used to represent kisses, while modern usage commonly assigns O to hugs. The sources cited here do not establish a single historical explanation for how O acquired that meaning, so XOXO’s familiar reading should not be mistaken for a fully documented origin story.
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What can safely be said about the symbol
- The explanation that X began as a signed mark kissed to seal a promise is a theory, not a proven chain of events.
- There is no uncontested first date: accounts cite White’s 1763 letter, a 1765 date, or Montgomery’s explicit 1878 example.
- Montgomery’s 1878 passage clearly shows crosses and circles described as kisses.
- XOXO is now a familiar affectionate sign-off, but the historical origins of both letters are not equally well established.
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