FromChristo- +gram, c. 1900, adopted fromGermanChristogramm, in c. 1860 as portmanteau or abbreviation of the slightly older (1840s) and more formal compoundChristusmonogramm, translating theMedieval LatinmonogrammaChristi. English literature before 1900 used compositional "Monogram of Christ" or the rarechrismon. First attested in the 1860s.The pluralChristograms is recorded in the 1950s and also rare.
Christogram (pluralChristograms)
- Amonogram that forms an abbreviation for the name ofJesus Christ, traditionally used as aChristiansymbol, such as thechi-rho.
1903,P. C., chapter 17, inThe Open Court[1], page185:Had he [the creator of a Pompeiian mosaic] been a Christian, he would certainly have given expression to his faith by some definite Christian symbol, — the fish or the ΑΩ, or theChristogram.
1978, W. O. Moeller, “Marks Names and Numbers”, in Boer, editor,Hommages a Maarten J. Vermaseren[2], page813:About thirty of these [markings on Pompeiian amphorae] appear to be either the so-calledchristograms[…] or other monograms disturbingly reminiscent of the variouschristograms
