What do the letters Dx - of diagnosis- stand for?

Question

I always see the letters Dx as the abbreviation of diagnosis, but I never understand how does this letter relate to the word diagnosis which doesn't contain the letter x. Therefore my question is

What do these two letters (Dx) stand for?

An example using these letters: Dx: atrial fibrilation and right bundlebranch block. (in cardiology)

It is likely a copy of the x in Rx (prescription) As to the origin of that, here is some in depth speculation: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1641/what-does-the-pharmacists-symbol-rx-mean — Adam, Mar 07 '16 at 17:47
relevant post on English Language and Usage: Term for the second letter in Sx, Dx, Rx? — sumelic, Mar 19 '16 at 03:41

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 06 '16 at 23:30

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There are a number of abbreviations which use the first letter and an 'x'. The other ones I can think of are:

Rx - Latin recipe ("take" - the traditional first word of a recipe!)

Tx - transmit/transmission

Rx - receive/reception

I suspect that the practice goes back to scribal abbreviations, though I don't know for sure.

answered Mar 06 '16 at 23:30

Colin Fine

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Here are some more: https://www.englishforums.com/English/OnGroundThoseAbbreviationsCreated/vvwx/post.htm – sumelic Mar 06 '16 at 23:43
I think a lot of the replies on that forum are unsupported speculation, and probably wrong. – Colin Fine Mar 07 '16 at 00:01
Probably! I didn't know about "Sx," "Fx" etc though. – sumelic Mar 07 '16 at 00:03
No, I didn't, either. It is noticeable that all the examples we have are used in particular fields, effectively as professional jargon: I'm not sure that any of them will be understood by the general public, except possible Rx for a prescription. – Colin Fine Mar 07 '16 at 00:14
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Good information but it doesn't answer the question. – user3169 Mar 07 '16 at 00:46
Well, it doesn't directly. It rather implies that the x stands for "the rest of the word". – Colin Fine Mar 07 '16 at 14:49

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 07 '16 at 03:40

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Dx is an abbreviation for a medical diagnosis or diagnostic (tool).

If you Google search on Dx diagnostics you can find numerous references.

dx is also used in radio communications, but that meaning is different (included in the above definition).

answered Mar 07 '16 at 03:40

user3169

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 19 '21 at 23:03

It comes from the manuscript practice of adding a crossbar to a letter to indicate that it's an abbreviation, like with Rx, the diagonal of the R was extended downward and crossed, so that it resembled a ligature of R and x. As typesetting was introduced, the lower-case x was a convenient way to represent such abbreviations.

What do the letters Dx - of diagnosis- stand for?

3 Answers3