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]
Noun
crux f (genitive crucis); third declension
- wooden frame on which criminals were crucified, especially a cross
- (derogatory) gallows bird; one who deserves to be hanged
- (figuratively) torture; misery
- cross (symbol)
- Ave Crux alba ― Hail thou white Cross
Descendants
- Balkan Romance:
- Dalmatian:
- Italo-Romance:
- North Italian:
- Friulian: crôs
- Ligurian: crôxe
- Old 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
- 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:
- Borrowings
- → Albanian: kryq
- → Basque: gurutze
- → Proto-Celtic: *kruxsā
- Proto-Brythonic: *kroɨs
- Old Irish: cros
- → Proto-Celtic: *krukā
- Proto-Brythonic: *krog
- 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
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)-?”