- crisscross (v.)
[crisscross 词源字典] - 1818, from Middle English crist(s)-crosse "Christ's cross" (late 15c.), earlier cros-kryst (late 14c.), "referring to the mark of a cross formerly written before the alphabet in hornbooks. The mark itself stood for the phrase Christ-cross me speed ('May Christ's cross give me success'), a formula said before reciting the alphabet" [Barnhart]. Used today without awareness of origin. As an adjective, 1846; as a noun, 1848.[crisscross etymology, crisscross origin, 英语词源]
- criss-cross
- "A pattern of intersecting straight lines or paths", Early 17th century (denoting a figure of a cross preceding the alphabet in a hornbook): from Christ-cross (in the same sense in late Middle English), from Christ's cross. The form was later treated as a reduplication of cross.
