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[Cynn]

It's "officially" cross in the same way that it's "officially" pronounced jif.

Not really. Cross has been called cross since the console launched. It was labeled as such in instruction manuals and spoken out in tutorials. It’s also been defined by the console creators multiple times with Circle representing “Yes” - Cross “No” - Square “Menu” and Triangle “viewpoint.

Calling it “X” is something dumb kids of the time adopted (because knowing the difference between a letter and a symbol is hard I guess) and in time and console generations some of those dumb kids became western developers and they kept to the letter idea even mislabeling it officially in their games.

Calling the button “X” is like using the pronunciation “Jif”: It makes no sense in relation to the origin of the name and goes directly against all logic. Both by thinking there would be a single letter in a group of shapes and ignoring the “graphic” part of the term gif.

My niece asked once back in the day if cross and circle were “X and O like when your write hugs and kisses” It was cute. Stupid, but cute.

 

[Whitesnake]

Calling the button “X” is like using the pronunciation “Jif”: It makes no sense in relation to the origin of the name and goes directly against all logic. Both by thinking there would be a single letter in a group of shapes and ignoring the “graphic” part of the term gif.

Pray tell, how do you believe "JPEG" should be pronounced?

 

[Teslerum]

I call X 'ecks', like the English letter that the Japanese appropriated. And I pronounce Monster Hunter Generations XX and Tekken X Street Fighter and Guilty Gear XX and Hunter X Hunter and all those other glorious 'cross' inclusions 'ecks' too.

Am I gonna start calling it 'Mega Man Cross' now? Which one is the better RPG, Final Fantasy Cross, Final Fantasy Cross Hypen Two, or Final Fantasy Cross Line Line?

What?

Why should Sonys definition of their own buttons now suddenly mean that EVERY *X* in history now means the same thing. Call it whateverthefuck you want.

Except don't call Final Fantasy 10 *X* when it obviously is refering to the roman numeral, thats far from ambigous.

 

[Teslerum]

Only japanese people refer to "X" (usually looks like ✕) as "cross".

They also refer to "~" as "dash".

They are wrong, and I will die on that hill.

Germans too. *Kreuzchen**Das Kreuz markiert die Stelle* As well as a whooooole lot of other people.

You've got a lot of dying to do.

 

[Rodolink]

Wtf I've always called it cross O:

 

[mcjmetroid]

It's 'eks.' Not 'cross.' Europeans are fucking weird. And wrong a lot.

I think this is just a British thing from what I understand.

 

[BlackTron]

As someone who doesn't play as much Playstation as other systems and doesn't spend much time around friends on its games -some time ago I needed to refer to the X button on the controller and stopped to think, clearly the buttons are all shapes, circle, triangle...I better call it "cross" or I might look stupid.

Well, I looked stupid.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

I remember seeing plenty of games -- including arcade titles -- that used X as "No" and O as "Yes", which made it so weird for X to be "Yes" in North American Playstation control schemes (PAL region too?).

The Japanese O for Yes (circling an option) and X for No (crossing out an option) always seemed more intuitive to me.

 

[Nymphae]

And still it is a cross. And depending on your profession you ARE actually going to use cross in that sense a lot.
And again, I don't care how you call it. I don't care how Sony calls it.

YOU SHOULDN'T EITHER.

But, cross is a completly valid definition for the shape displayed on the button. Nothing more, nothing less.
I don't have a problem with posts saying *And I don't care and call it X*. Thats fine. I do have a problem with people calling Sony's definition of shapes *wrong*.

You seem to be missing the point. If most people call it X instead of cross, then I am correct in saying you generally do not call that shape a cross, even if, as I already stated, one could pedantically refer to it as a cross. Popular usage beats pedantry unfortunately.

 

[Whitesnake]

Germans too. *Kreuzchen**Das Kreuz markiert die Stelle* As well as a whooooole lot of other people.

You've got a lot of dying to do.

Sorry, I don't speak bratwurst

 

[Codes 208]

I dont know about you guys, but my favorite system of all time is the cross-box 360

Only japanese people refer to "X" (usually looks like ✕) as "cross".

They also refer to "~" as "dash".

They are wrong, and I will die on that hill.

This has always messed with me. Like with anime you have a title like Hunter X Hunter, my mind is always going to read it out as hunter eks hunter rather than their interpretation of hunter cross hunter, or Monster Hunter X(cross) is just MHX to me.

 

[Animagic]

I remember it was called that when PS1 was brand new but I always just called it x

 

[Zog]

See, I thought a cross looked like a horizontal line and a vertical line intersecting, not two diagonal lines.

 

[DonF]

The cross men.
Yeah right.

 

[Zog]

The cross men.
Yeah right.

The Crossbox One. Have you ever had a Cross-Ray to look at your bones? I can't wait for the remake of Crossenoblade Chronicles.

 

[Myths]

Who cares how it’s titled, every mfa in this thread know exactly what to press what I tell you to press.

All controller buttons are symbols regardless, how it’s said is just a mnemonic. Most gamers don’t describe and/or title controller buttons in more than two ways, so everyone knows what the deal is.

THIS IS AN OG CALL.

 

[Yoshi]

An x is not a cross. At least not in English speaking nations.

It’s an X.

X, circle, triangle, B that is what I have and always will call them.

How do you define the shape of a cross then, in English speaking countries?

 

[DESTROYA]

More of a T

 

[Zog]

How do you define the shape of a cross then, in English speaking countries?

A horizontal line and a vertical line intersecting with the vertical line being longer than the horizontal one.

 

[Teslerum]

You seem to be missing the point. If most people call it X instead of cross, then I am correct in saying you generally do not call that shape a cross, even if, as I already stated, one could pedantically refer to it as a cross. Popular usage beats pedantry unfortunately.

Theres plenty of popular usage though depending on who you are or what you're doing. Including myself.
And I don't think pointing out the definition of something thats used across multiple languages is pedantry but ymmv.

And just to look at your quote again:

The thing that I never understood about this is that it's observably not "a cross"

You didn't JUST say that its not generally called a *cross*. Instead you said its observably not one. Which is untrue since EVERY OTHER BUTTON in that 4 button combination is based on a SHAPE, not a letter.

 

[EverydayBeast]

I see it as an X and it's not even a debate.

 

[lyan]

Only japanese people refer to "X" (usually looks like ✕) as "cross".

They also refer to "~" as "dash".

They are wrong, and I will die on that hill.

I would think the whole Asia calls it by its geometric name in their respective language since "eks" is not a primary thing to billions of people, shocking right.

 

[MiyazakiHatesKojima]

Jesus won.

 

[M0G]

Never ever heard anyone call it cross ever (from UK as well). That goes for box too.

X & square fit perfectly fine with triangle and circle... I've never even given this a second thought lol.

 

[Thabass]

Oh yeah? What do you call THIS then?

Totally a cross. Take that religion!

 

[Aranea]

 

[Whitesnake]

I would think the whole Asia calls it by its geometric name in their respective language since "eks" is not a primary thing to billions of people, shocking right.

Billions of people are wrong.

I am right.

 

[Nymphae]

You didn't JUST say that its not generally called a *cross*. Instead you said its observably not one. Which is untrue since EVERY OTHER BUTTON in that 4 button combination is based on a SHAPE, not a letter.

Ok sure, it is technically a cross shape. What I meant to convey was that I believe most of us who use X instead of cross do so because the word cross to us primarily means a christian cross. It might be true that it is a cross shape, but the overwhelming majority of people seem to prefer calling it an X. Sure, it is valid to call it a cross, but when I say they were wrong to name it that way, I mean to say the majority thought something else made more sense. And I agree with them.

 

[ethomaz]

To be fair the two lower buttons are not letters but the action of confirm and cancel in Japan...

It is a image/picture for these two actions... they have no name at all.

Said that the are shapes so Cross is better than X.

 

[Fake]

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Amazing!

 

[Codes 208]

I feel like this is a way of PS (us) poking a little fun at PS (uk)

And im loving the results.

 

[ethomaz]

"Saint Andrew's Cross", not "Saint Andrew's Ex".

Also the origin of the PS buttons is:

"The triangle refers to viewpoint; I had it represent one’s head or direction and made it green. Square refers to a piece of paper; I had it represent menus or documents and made it pink. The circle and X represent ‘yes’ or ‘no’ decision-making and I made them red and blue respectively. People thought those colors were mixed up, and I had to reinforce to management that that’s what I wanted."

In Japan Circle was confirm, X was cancel. In the west they were reversed. Not idea why some people think square was the back button.

Perfection.

This is the only right answer.

BTW PS manuals says Cross but people never reads manuals.

 

[Nymphae]

I feel like this is a way of PS (us) poking a little fun at PS (uk)

And im loving the results.

What are the results? I don't have a twitter account.

 

[Cynn]

Pray tell, how do you believe "JPEG" should be pronounced?

Personally I say “Jay-Peg” even though it’s an acronym and should either be pronounced by letter or something like “Juh-peg” since it’s first word is Joint. I can’t break the habit of how I learned it in computer club. I never said I was without fault.

I also hate:

People who say SNES as a word. “sness”

People who say “Seg-uh” instead of “Say-guh”. (The fucking games, commercials and etc scream it properly at people but they still say it stupid) *Exclusion is Australia because all of the marketing threw “See-Gah” at them.

People who refuse to use the “T” sound in words. Example: “Buddons” instead of “Buttons”.

People who claim games used to be better in the past because patches didn’t exist. (Bad games just stayed broken forever in that era)

Cats.

 

[ethomaz]

I remember seeing plenty of games -- including arcade titles -- that used X as "No" and O as "Yes", which made it so weird for X to be "Yes" in North American Playstation control schemes (PAL region too?).

The Japanese O for Yes (circling an option) and X for No (crossing out an option) always seemed more intuitive to me.

It is and I always had issues starting a new west FF until I reach the menu to change it.

 

[Whitesnake]

Personally I say “Jay-Peg” even though it’s an acronym and should either be pronounced by letter or something like “Juh-peg” since it’s first word is Joint. I can’t break the habit of how I learned it in computer club. I never said I was without fault.

And the P stands for “Photographic”.

So by your rules it would be pronounced “Juh-Feg”.

But nobody calls it that because it’s dumb. Acronyms don’t have to be pronounced by the way those letters in the individual words are pronounced.

 

[Codes 208]

What are the results? I don't have a twitter account.

82% vs 7% vs 11% (in that order)

 

[petran79]

Funny thing is, I also use the X keyboard key as cancel button

But we called it cross too from ancient times

 

[Codes 208]

And the P stands for “Photographic”.

So by your rules it would be pronounced “Juh-Feg”.

But nobody calls it that because it’s dumb. Acronyms don’t have to be pronounced by the way those letters in the individual words are pronounced.

Sometimes its just a cultural thing influenced bu what we hear.

Take lol for example, its el oh el but being from newgrounds ive seen it ironically spelt out as lohl (crab battle’s lolioliolioooo being one of the earlist examples i can think of.)

 

[Yoshi]

A horizontal line and a vertical line intersecting with the vertical line being longer than the horizontal one.

I have not seen a single mathematical text book that puts requirements on orientation and length of the lines on the cross shape.

 

[Zog]

I have not seen a single mathematical text book that puts requirements on orientation and length of the lines on the cross shape.

Your question was:

How do you define the shape of a cross then, in English speaking countries?

Your question didn't ask what was in mathematical text books.

 

[Link1110]

I've only ever called it X and I'm from the UK, cross just sounds wierd.

I can imagine even more in UK than elsewhere. We don't call or the angry button in the US.

 

[Teslerum]

Your question didn't ask what was in mathematical text books.

He's still right

noun

noun: cross; plural noun: crosses

1. 1.
   a mark, object, or figure formed by two short intersecting lines or pieces (+ or ×).
   "place a cross against the preferred choice"

I can't find a single dictionary that defines it as you did.

 

[Rayderism]

To me, a cross is this; "+"

X is ecks or ex.

"They" can call it whatever they want, I'm calling it ex or ecks or however you want to spell a single letter.

 

[Rest]

It is and will always be x. The end.

It’s also been defined by the console creators multiple times with Circle representing “Yes” - Cross “No” - Square “Menu” and Triangle “viewpoint.

Designers can contrive whatever bullshit they want, real people will use natural language to describe things practically.

 

[Ailike]

Wasn't there even a Cross Media Bar or something? I forget, but its always been cross. I still say X, but I know thats not what it is.

 

[Teslerum]

To me, a cross is this; "+"

X is ecks or ex.

"They" can call it whatever they want, I'm calling it ex or ecks or however you want to spell a single letter.

Short question on this, even if it potentially leads to another can of worms.

What do you call the "+" on Nintendo gamepads since WIII?

Cross? Because I've been calling both buttons "plus" and "minus" as they both exist. Never cross in that instance.

 

[Rest]

Short question on this, even if it potentially leads to another can of worms.

What do you call the "+" on Nintendo gamepads since WIII?

Cross? Because I've been calling both buttons "plus" and "minus" as they both exist. Never cross in that instance.

+ is plus, † is a cross.

 

[Larxia]

I'm extremely confused by how many people don't know the difference between the letter X and the geometric shape.
A cross is not necesarilly the religion cross, I don't even get why this seems to be such a common confusion, I'm not from the US though, I'm from France, so maybe it's a cultural thing in the US to associate the word cross with the religious thing but...

On a "cross", the space between all lines is identical, on the letter, the vertical space between lines is much larger than the horizontal one.
And just, if you think about it logically, why would 3 of the symbols be geometric shapes, and only one a letter?

It's a cross.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Reminds me of AT AT vs Aytee Aytee.