pix

Etymology 1

First attested 1916, abbreviation of pictures, first used in Variety, along with other similar words that the magazine calls slanguage.

noun

1. (informal) plural of pic (“picture”)
   Annual photo contest has brought in some pix by amateurs which are definitely in the professional category. 1946, “Palisades Notes”, in The Billboard, Nielsen Business Media, Inc., ISSN 0006-2510, Volume 58, Number 37 (1946 September 14), page 82
   Photo selection can be tricky with space limitations, Arthur, and we blew that one. Hope the Scott pix in our January issue made you feel better about this. 1978, response to a letter to the editor, in American Motorcyclist, American Motorcyclist Association, ISSN 0277-9358, Volume 32, Number 2 (1978 February), page 4
   "But it's not much good piling up the pix if I can't sell them." 1980, Iris Murdoch, Nuns And Soldiers
   He nervously wrote down Amy’s instructions for what to say and how to behave if the police came back with a search warrant: […] take pix of damage afterward 2010, Lynn Powell, Framing Innocence: A Mother’s Photographs, a Prosecutor’s Zeal, and a Small Town’s Response, The New Press, pages 15–16
2. (specifically) Motion pictures; movies.
   Mutual has started a campaign to substitute a word for the term “Movies.” It contemplates the use of the word “Pix” and thinks this would be welcomed as a short word for the headline writer and amply descriptive.] [1916-12-08, “News of the film world”, in Variety, volume XLV, number 2, page 27

Etymology 2

A variant of pyx.

noun

1. Obsolete spelling of pyx
   [F]oraſmuche as we have often and many tymes, to our inwarde regrete and diſpleaſure, ſeen at oure Jen, in diverſe and many Churches of our Realme, the holie Sacrament of the Aulter kept in ful simple and inhoneſt Pixes, ſpecially Pixes of copre and tymbre: we have appointed and commaunded the Treſourer of our Chambre, and Maiſtre of our Juellhouſe, to cauſe to be made furthwith Pixes of ſilver and gilte, in a greate nombre, for the keping of the holie Sacrament of th'Aultre, after the faction of a Pixe that we have cauſed to be delivered to theim, […] 1509 April 20 (Gregorian calendar), Henry VII of England, edited by Thomas Astle], The Will of King Henry VII, London: Printed for the editor; and sold by T[homas] Payne,[…]; and B[enjamin] White,[…], published 1775, →OCLC, pages 37–38
   [T]he said Tresurer and other Officers of the sayd Mynts, to bring with them, at that tyme and place, all ther Pixes, and ther severall Indentures of Coynag, by and for the holle tyme the said Assaye shall be taken. 16th–17th century, Rogers Ruding, “Of the Trial of the Pix”, in John Yonge Akerman], editor, Annals of the Coinage of Great Britain and Its Dependencies; from the Earliest Period of Authentic History to the Reign of Victoria.[…], volume I, London: Printed for John Hearne,[…]; by Manning and Mason,[…], published 1840, →OCLC, page 73
   They have Pixes and Chalices for the Bleſſed Sacrament five hundred and fifty, ſome of pure Gold, others of Silver and Criſtal; and among them, is one that was offer'd to our Bleſſed Saviour, by one of the three Kings, when they came to Worſhip him, and brought Preſents. 1702, [William Bromley], “[In Italy]”, in Several Years Travels through Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany, Prussia, Sweden, Denmark and the United Provinces.[…], London: […] A[bel] Roper,[…], R. Basset[…], and W. Turner[…], →OCLC, page 52

verb

1. Obsolete spelling of pyx
   The bread that was left of this consecration or breaking, which was so holy as the other, was neither housed nor churched, boxed nor pixed, but remained there still to the householders, to be eaten of whomsoever lusted. 1545, John Bale, “[The Image of both Churches, Being an Exposition of the Most Wonderful Book of Revelation of St John the Evangelist.] The Twenty-second Chapter.”, in Henry Christmas, editor, Select Works of John Bale,[…] (Parker Society for the Publication of the Works of the Fathers and Early Writers of the Reformed English Church; 1), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] The University Press, published 1849, →OCLC, page 628
   Christ ordained the supper to be a taking matter, an eating matter, a distributing and remembering matter: contrary our mass-men make it a matter, not of taking, but of gazing, peeping, pixing, boxing, carrying, re-carrying, worshipping, stooping, kneeling, knocking, with "stoop down before," "hold up higher," "I thank God I see my Maker to-day," etc. Christ ordained it a table-matter: we turn it to an altar-matter. 1583, John Foxe, “The Preface to the Reader”, in Josiah Pratt, editor, The Acts and Monuments of John Foxe.[…], 3rd edition, volume VI, London: George Seeley,[…], published 1870, →OCLC, book X (The Beginning of the Reign of Queen Mary), page 361
   [W]hen the money is coined it is not allowed to go out of the mint until pixed; that is, until it had been ascertained, by the assay of one piece taken out of each journeyweight of coin, that it is of standard purity: […] 1842, “ASSA′Y”, in W[illiam] T[homas] Brande, assisted by Joseph Cauvin, editors, A Dictionary of Science, Literature, & Art:[…], London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans,[…], →OCLC, page 95, column 2