Havelock and Xform

[jack]

Stupid questions, but where google and wikipedia fail me, my friends generally know.

1. "Xform" as an abbreviation of "transform". That's standard, isn't it? But where does that come from? I'm suddenly unsure. Is that just 'x' being 'an arbitrary operation'?

ETA: Thanks to three people who almost instantly pointed out that X works for 'trans', in the sense 'cross'.

2. "Havelock". I'm really only familiar with it as in "Vetinari", but I have the feeling it's a reference to something or other. There's a few other Havelocks on wikipedia, but nothing that made sense to me.

Comments

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

I sort of remember from Latin lessons at school that 'trans' is a Latin or Greek borrowing that means across something - transatlantic, transport, transsexual, etc. so it somehow fits to refer to it with a cross. That would be confusing in materials science and related subjects though, where "cryst" is abbreviated to a cross presumably because it sounds like "christ" - Xallography or (X'g'y if in a real hurry!), Xallite, etc. It looks odd seeing it in print, on notes you write it broad the other way.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

There's a bracket wrong there, sorry...