XXX
The origin and history of XXX.
Etymology
The pornography sense comes from the US film rating "X," introduced in 1968 for adult content; posters exaggerated it to "XXX" to imply something even more extreme. The "kisses" sense is unrelated, from the letter X historically representing a kiss on letters.
Class of 1968
XXX first entered the language around 1968. Other words from the same year:
See the full Class of 1968 →