Talk:X-e O-zees

RFV discussion: December 2022–February 2023
From what I gather this is supposedly a Northern Irish term. There are actually quite a few hits on Google, but the quality of the hits is low enough that I wasn't able to find a convincing use. Searching for "play/playing/plays/played X-e O-zees" drops the number of ghits to zero. Nothing on Google Books, Scholar, Groups, Twitter, Archive.org, or Issuu. Created by Peppermintpatty111 (A3A0), not particularly known for accuracy. 70.172.194.25 09:54, 29 December 2022 (UTC)


 * I think this reflects real speech but the particular spelling might be off. For example, there's a Northern Irish food product called "Exy Ozys" which uses tic-tac-toe in branding. If I search for other variant spellings like "exy ozies" on Twitter, I can find some people with Irish-sounding names talking about tic-tac-toe. 70.172.194.25 10:03, 29 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Google Preview won't show me the actual page but it's mentioned as the Northern Irish term for tic tac toe in the form xie-osies in The Double-Daring Book for Girls, p. 29, though the only other place that spelling appears is this Northern Irish primary school page. Unfortunately it's probably a case where there isn't any standard spelling. —Al-Muqanna المقنع (talk) 11:31, 29 December 2022 (UTC)
 * The first time I came across this was in the comments section to the YT video by JT Reacts called 'American vs British English 50 Differences' where someone writes that 'exsy ohsy' is the Northern Irish term and shortly after that one Scotsman says it should be 'X's and O's' while another one counters that they say 'noughts and crosses' like we do in England. The comments are still up on YT but, of course, this doesn't count as a durably archived use. There is also 'Xy Ozy' on Twitter. X'y O's is apparently a Scottish term that's also used, halfway between 'X's and O's and 'Exy Ozy', according to one user on Twitter --Overlordnat1 (talk) 12:48, 29 December 2022 (UTC)
 * The link between this term and X's and O's probably shouldn't claim that X's and O's is an English and Irish term either, it's probably just a rare synonym. I found one use of X's and O's on Google Books in the autobiography of the Canadian gangster Tommy Marks Donily, one of the biggest ever meth dealers in America, and added it to our entry. --Overlordnat1 (talk) 13:56, 29 December 2022 (UTC)

I have created Citations:exie-osies with a few uses and mentions in books but there seems to be no established form. – Einstein2 (talk) 14:02, 29 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Great job! I suggest we move the current entry to exie-osies and list the alternative forms there, even if some of them have to remain as red links. We've also got full support (if we consider 'Xs and Os' to be a variant) for X's and O's now, as I used two of your cites there. --Overlordnat1 (talk) 16:26, 29 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Yes, I think this is the best spelling. It fits right in with the other entries in Category:English terms suffixed with -sies. — Soap — 14:01, 2 February 2023 (UTC)
 * Ah, one of those words everybody can say but nobody can spell, like (jush, tszuj, zhuzh, zhoozh...) Equinox ◑ 16:29, 29 December 2022 (UTC)

RFV Failed, not attested in this spelling. Ioaxxere (talk) 19:43, 24 February 2023 (UTC)