crux

See also: Crux

English

WOTD – 21 August 2009

Etymology

From Latin crux (“cross, wooden frame for execution”), possibly from the Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to turn, to bend”). Doublet of cross and crouch (“cross”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /kɹʌks/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌks

Noun

crux (plural cruxes or cruces)

1. The basic, central, or essential point or feature.

   Synonyms: core, gist; see also Thesaurus:gist

   The crux of her argument was that the roadways needed repair before anything else could be accomplished.

2. The critical or transitional moment or issue, a turning point.
   • 1993, Laurence M. Porter, “Real Dreams, Literary Dreams, and the Fantastic in Literature”, in Carol Schreier Rupprecht, editor, The Dream and the Text: Essays on Literature and Language, pages 32–47:

     The mad certitude of the ogre, Abel Tiffauges, that he stands at the crux of history and that he will be able to raise Prussia "to a higher power" (p. 180), contrasts sharply with the anxiety and doubt attendant upon most modern literary dreams.

3. A puzzle or difficulty.
   • 1775, Thomas Sheridan, Lectures on the Art of Reading:

     What I have advanced upon this species of verse will contribute to solve a poetical problem, thrown out by Dryden as a crux to his brethren

   • 1860, Marian Evans (translator), The Life of Jesus, Critically Examined (originally by David Strauss)

     The perpetual crux of New Testament chronologists.

4. (climbing) The hardest point of a climb.
   • 1907, The Alpine Journal‎, volume 23:

     the real crux of the climb was encountered

   • 1973, Pat Armstrong, "Klondike Fever: Seventy Years Too Late", in Backpacker, Autumn 1973, page 84:

     The final half-mile was the crux of the climb.

   • 2004, Craig Luebben, Rock Climbing: Mastering Basic Skills, The Mountaineers Books, →ISBN, page 179:

     Most pitches have a distinct crux, or tough spot; some have multiple cruxes. […] ¶ Climb efficiently on the "cruiser" sections to stay fresh for the cruxes.

   • 2009, R. J. Secor, The High Sierra: Peaks, Passes, and Trails, Third Edition, The Mountaineers Books, →ISBN, page 51:

     Continue climbing the groove; the crux is passing some vegetation on the second pitch.

5. (heraldry) A cross on a coat of arms.

Derived terms

• crux ansata
• crux decussata
• crux gammata
• crux ordinaria
• crux simplex
• cruxy

 

Related terms

• cross
• crucial

Descendants

• → French: crux

Translations

central or essential point

Arabic: مَرْبِط الْفَرَس m (marbiṭ al-faras) Armenian: առանցքային կետ (aṙancʻkʻayin ket), առանցք (hy) (aṙancʻkʻ) Bulgarian: същност на проблема (sǎštnost na problema) Catalan: moll de l'os (ca) m, quid (ca) m Chinese: Mandarin: 關鍵／关键 (zh) (guānjiàn) Czech: podstata (cs) f Finnish: ydin (fi) German: Kern (de) m (-punkt) Hebrew: עיקר (he) m (ikar) Italian: punto cruciale m Malayalam: കാര്യം (ml) (kāryaṁ) Maori: tino (mi) Polish: sedno (pl) n Portuguese: ponto crucial m Romanian: punct crucial n Russian: основная проблема f (osnovnaja problema), решающий вопрос m (rešajuščij vopros), суть (ru) f (sutʹ) Spanish: punto crucial m, punto esencial m Swedish: kärna (sv) Welsh: craidd (cy) m

critical or transitional moment

Armenian: շրջադարձային կետ (šrǰadarjayin ket) Bulgarian: критичен момент (kritičen moment) Dutch: kruispunt (nl) n Finnish: käännekohta (fi), taitekohta German: Wendepunkt (de) m Portuguese: momento decisivo m Romanian: moment decisiv n

puzzle or difficulty

Bulgarian: затруднение (bg) n (zatrudnenie) Finnish: hankaluus (fi) German: Crux (de) f, Knackpunkt (de) m Polish: zagadka (pl) f Spanish: busilis (es) Swedish: krux (sv) n

hardest part of a climb

Finnish: vaikein kohta French: crux (fr) m

(heraldry) cross on a coat of arms — see cross

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin crux or English crux, in the phrase crux interpretum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /krʏks/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: crux

Noun

crux f (plural cruces or cruxen)

1. crucial or otherwise serious, difficult problem

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English crux. Doublet of croix, croiseur, and cruiser.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kʁyks/, /kʁœks/

Noun

crux m (plural crux)

1. (climbing) crux (hardest point of a climb)

Latin

Latin Wikipedia has an article on:

crux

Wikipedia ^la

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *kruks or *krukis (it is uncertain whether the original form was an i-stem), of unknown origin. Pokorny connected Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to turn, to bend”) with an assumed extension in *-k-; compare Latin circus (“circle”) and curvus (“curve”).^[1] This explanation suffers phonetic, morphological and semantic problems. A modern hypothesis connects Irish crúach (“heap, hill”), Gaulish *krouka (“summit”), Proto-Brythonic *krʉg (“small hill; pillar”), Old Norse hrúga (“heap, pile”), and Proto-Germanic *hraukaz (“heap, pile”) and *hrugjaz (“back, spine, ridge”), pointing to Proto-Indo-European *krewk- (“~ heap, hill; back, spine?”), albeit with an unusual root structure and shaky semantics. Alternatively, a loanword from an unidentified or substrate language.^[2]

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /kruks/, [krʊks̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /kruks/, [kruks]

Noun

crux f (genitive crucis); third declension

1. wooden frame on which criminals were crucified, especially a cross
2. (derogatory) gallows bird; one who deserves to be hanged
3. (figuratively) torture; misery
4. cross (symbol)

   Ave Crux alba ― Hail thou white Cross

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	crux	crucēs
Genitive	crucis	crucum
Dative	crucī	crucibus
Accusative	crucem	crucēs
Ablative	cruce	crucibus
Vocative	crux	crucēs

Derived terms

• cruciārius
• crucifer
• crucifīgō
• crucifixor
• cruciō

Related terms

• cruciābilis
• cruciābiliter
• cruciābilitās
• cruciābundus
• cruciāmen
• cruciāmentum
• cruciātiō
• cruciātor
• cruciātōrius
• cruciātus

Descendants

• Balkan Romance:
  • Aromanian: crutsi, crutse, crutsã, cãrutsi, cãrutse
  • Romanian: cruce
• Dalmatian:
  • crauc
• Italo-Romance:
  • Corsican: croce, croci
  • Gallurese: gruci, grugi
  • Italian: croce
  • Neapolitan: croce
  • Sassarese: crozi
  • Sicilian: cruci
• North Italian:
  • Friulian: crôs
  • Ligurian: crôxe
  • Old Lombard: crox
    • Lombard: crox
  • Piedmontese: cros
  • Romagnol: cróṡ (Ravenna, Lugo)
  • Romansch: crusch, crousch
  • Venetian: cróxe
• Gallo-Romance:
  • Franco-Provençal: croués
  • Old French: crois (see there for further descendants)
• Occitano-Romance:
  • Occitan: crotz
  • Old Catalan: crou, creu
    • Catalan: creu
• West Iberian:
  • Asturian: cruz
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: cruz
    • Galician: cruz
    • Portuguese: cruz (see there for further descendants)
  • Spanish: cruz (see there for further descendants)
• Insular Romance:
  • Sardinian: cruche, crugi, cruxi, gruche, grughe, gruxi

Borrowings

• → Albanian: kryq
• → Basque: gurutze
• → Proto-Celtic: *kruxsā
  • Proto-Brythonic: *kroɨs
    • Breton: kroes, kroaz
    • Cornish: krows
    • Welsh: croes, crwys
  • Old Irish: cros
    • Irish: cros
    • Scottish Gaelic: crois
    • → Old Norse: kross, *kors
      • Danish: kors
      • Faroese: krossur
      • Icelandic: kross
      • Norwegian Bokmål: kors
      • Norwegian Nynorsk: kors, kross
      • Swedish: kors
      • → Old English: cros
        • Middle English: cross (see there for further descendants)
• → Proto-Celtic: *krukā
  • Proto-Brythonic: *krog
    • Middle Welsh: croc
      • Welsh: crog
  • Old Irish: croch (see there for further descendants)
• → Dutch: crux
• → English: crux
• → Old English: crūċ (see there for further descendants)
• → Finnish: ruksi
• → German: Crux
• → Old High German: krūzi (see there for further descendants)
• → Icelandic: krús
• → Middle Dutch: cruce, crucen
  • Dutch: kruis (see there for further descendants)
  • Limburgish: kruutse
  • West Flemish: kruus
• → Old Saxon: krūci (see there for further descendants)
• Southern Common Slavic: → *kryžь
  • Serbo-Croatian:
    • Latin script: križ
    • Cyrillic script: криж
  • Slovene: križ
  • → Old Czech: kříž
    • Czech: kříž ,
    • → Old Polish: krzyż
      • → Polish: krzyż (see there for further descendants)
    • → Slovak: kríž
    • → Lower Sorbian: kśica
    • → Upper Sorbian: křiž

References

• “crux”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “crux”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• crux in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• crux in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to threaten some one with death, crucifixion, torture, war: minitari (minari) alicui mortem, crucem et tormenta, bellum
    
  • to crucify: in crucem agere, tollere aliquem
    
  • to crucify: cruci suffigere aliquem
    
• “crux”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “crux”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

1. Pokorny, Julius (1959) “611”, in Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Indo-European Etymological Dictionary] (in German), volume 2, Bern, München: Francke Verlag, page 611
2. De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “crux, -cis”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 147–148: “PIt. *kruk(-i)-?”