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I'm currently working with some handwritten notes that look like they could be quite old, or at least written by somebody who grew up a little bit earlier than I did. I don't really know when they were written, but judging by the style of handwriting, I feel like they could be a few decades old. They were almost certainly written by a British person.

Anyway, a few times in these notes, I find what I'm certain is a superscript letter 'x' used as an abbreviation for 'yards'. It is most certainly an abbreviation for yards, because I happen to have the printed notice that my writer was making notes on and the distance in the original is in yards.

I'm just interested why a superscript 'x' should be used as an abbreviation for 'yards', how common it was, and when (if ever) it fell out of regular use. Just because I'm seeing it for the first time, doesn't mean it's fallen completely out of use!

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Other examples:

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Comparisons with this writer's 'y':

enter image description here

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    I don't recall ever seeing this usage.
    – Hot Licks
    Commented Oct 26, 2019 at 19:49
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    That's a superscript Y that has been poorly penned.
    – David M
    Commented Oct 26, 2019 at 20:10
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    @DavidM That's not a bad shout at all, but I have a couple of reasons for doubting you unfortunately. One reason is that this is not the only example and the 'y's look too consistently like 'x's and the other is that this letter does not look very much like this person's 'y' found in other places (pictures to follow)
    – Au101
    Commented Oct 26, 2019 at 20:19
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    @DavidM I will concede after doing a bit more combing, word-final 'y' and other 'y's in places where there was less room are a lot more cramped and closer in appearance to an 'x', but I find the consistency too much to think it's a 'y' written in a hurry. Also a cursory google search for yard "superscript x" turns up a couple of interesting looking posts on a website greatwarforum.org suggesting superscript 'x' = 'yards'
    – Au101
    Commented Oct 26, 2019 at 20:30
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    I'm looking for something like using tick marks ' for feet, " for inches. Maybe x for yards?
    – David M
    Commented Oct 26, 2019 at 20:34

5 Answers 5

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As the OP has already noted in the comments, there are sources suggesting (at least military) use of superscript-x for yards.

Here is a source instructing how to transcribe Navy log books for historical research. It says superscript-x means "yards." (See the "symbols" section near the top of the page; section heading in red text.)

http://www.naval-history.net/OWShips-ForumMat.htm

2600x - an example of recording distance.

x - Yards. A unit of length equaling 3 feet or 0.9144 meters. Transcribe this as 'x'.

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I still remember an ancient notice outside the changing rooms in my high school warning children not to play ball games within 8x of the goal mouths. It definitely meant yards because I was there long enough to see it replaced with a metric version that said 8 metres instead.

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Superscript 'x' for yards was common up to at least the mid 20th Century in British railway signal engineering, which the handwritten text is clearly related to. 'Up home' is a British railway signal designation.

New post carrying H. up home will be provided 70x nearer Stockbridge than exist[ing] which will be [rmvd?]

The drafter of the below diagram evidently could not spell 'therefore':

http://mascil-toolkit.ph-freiburg.de/no/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Handout-mathematics-in-the-world-of-work.doc

enter image description here

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  • Its an interesting link, but does the 'x' really represent 'Yards', in the same way inches" or feet' are used? Could it be being used in the cartesian sense - used to indicate horizontal distance (x-axsis), as opposed to the 'y' vertical displacement - which could be confused with y= yards. I think there is no question that the 600 in the diagram and the 600 in the 'Distance in yards' column of the table are the same thing, just that the unit of measurement may only be specified in the table. A long signalling section could conceivably be measured in Chains (Imperial unit = 22 yards).
    – NeilB
    Commented Oct 26, 2019 at 22:45
  • Why? Are you a Signal Engineer? Can you elucidate?
    – NeilB
    Commented Oct 26, 2019 at 23:18
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Some years too late but maybe better late than never. I hold some National Archives files from WW2 on bombsights. Generally the accuracy of the bombs landing point relative to the target is measured as "5yds" but in several cases it has a number with x as a superscript. Without doubt it was used by equipment development staff, possibly not directly by the RAF service personnel. So maybe just people with engineering and/or scientific backgrounds.

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Yards would NOT be indicated by a superscript. We would just say 10 yards or 10 yds.

Could the "x" be a footnote superscript referring to some reference calculation perhaps that is listed in the References? Ref a,..., Ref x, Ref y

Or perhaps shorthand for "times" (multiplication) 70x = 70 times?

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  • The text in the provided picture certainly seems to be talking about a distance of 70 something, and the OP has a second document backing up the idea that those are distances in yards.
    – nnnnnn
    Commented Nov 25, 2019 at 13:21
  • In the English language, I have never seen anyone anywhere use a superscript for engineering units. Can you show me any reference that says this is done as a common convention? Just because I may not be right does not mean I am wrong.
    – Teacher Lee
    Commented Nov 28, 2019 at 1:33
  • I didn't make any claims about common conventions, indeed I agree that superscript x is not the normal abbreviation, I just pointed out that the OP's specific example is from a real document that in context with associated documents does appear to be using the "x" to mean yards. Presumably the OP would know if that document contains footnotes. Maybe the person who wrote the document was confused, or made up their own notation inspired by the normal abbreviations for inches and feet.
    – nnnnnn
    Commented Nov 28, 2019 at 3:07
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    It seems to me that the "x" is either a personal shorthand system used by the writer or is, as per David M above, a "y". The mark should not be compared to the cursive script in the notes.
    – Greybeard
    Commented Jun 3, 2020 at 10:41

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