Wyvern

(wiv'ürn.) (Her.) An Fig. 694.- A WYVERN. imaginary animal, in the form of a winged serpent (Fig. 694), often represented as a charge in armorial bearings. (pron. eks,) a letter of Greek origin, the 24th let- [s. 970] X X, ter of the English alphabet, and one that, when used at the beginning of a word, carries with it the precise sound of z, but in the middle and at the end of words, it is sounded like ks as in sex, taxation, luxury. In French, it is variously pronounced as s, cs, ga, and z. In place of z the Italians use , as in A le andro; while the Germans never employ it in the commencement of aw ord, generally substituting for it ks, gs, or chs. It begins no word in our language but such as are of Greek derivation, and is found in few others besides those which are of Latin parentage. As a numeral, X stands for 10; when laid horizontally, thus, for 1,000; and with a dash over it, for 10,000. As an abbreviation, it stands for Christ, as in In, Christian, andXmas, Christmas. This letter being interchangeable to some extent wit hj, g, and s, certain proper names (mostly geographical), sometimes imitated by X, will be found under the above-named letters. [s. 971]