Latin

Noun

crismon

1. Christogram, chrismon, ☧ (Chi-Rho monogram)
2. chrism

   c. 1130: "In sabbato secundo de Quadragesima, duo minores custodes septimanarii [...] debent quærere cilicium ab archiepiscopo, et debent portare in medio ecclesiæ, et facere Chrismon super illud decurrere." L. A. Murator, Antiquitates Italicae medii aevi vol. 4, col. 912.

Descendants

• chrismon
• chrismum

References

• CRISMON in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)

1. ↑ Crismon (par les Bénédictins de St. Maur, 1733–1736), in: du Cange, et al., Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, ed. augm., Niort : L. Favre, 1883‑1887, t. 2, col. 621b. "CRISMON, Nota quæ in libro ex voluntate uniuscujusque ad aliquid notandum ponitur. Papias in MS. Bituric. Crismon vel Chrismon proprie est Monogramma Christi sic expressum ☧" 1 chrismon (par les Bénédictins de St. Maur, 1733–1736), in: du Cange, et al., Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, ed. augm., Niort : L. Favre, 1883‑1887, t. 2, col. 318c, citing Heumann. de re Diplom. inde a Carol. M. § 12; Murator. Antiquit. Ital. tom. 3. col. 75. The suggestion here is that the letter χ for χρηστός ‎(khrēstós) "useful" was used as a scribal siglum in manuscript margins to draw attention to important passages; this letter χ would itself have been called χρήσιμα, which in turn became the name of the Christogram, no doubt via influence of chrisma and of the name Christus itself.
2. ↑ A. L. Millin, Voyage dans le Milanais (1817), p. 51.