crux
English edit
Etymology edit
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 edit
Noun edit
crux (plural cruxes or cruces)
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- (climbing) The hardest point of a climb.
- 1907, The Alpine Journal[1], 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.
- (heraldry) A cross on a coat of arms.
Derived terms edit
Related terms edit
Descendants edit
- → French: crux
Translations edit
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Dutch edit
Etymology edit
Borrowed from Latin crux or English crux, in the phrase crux interpretum.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
French edit
Etymology edit
Borrowed from English crux. Doublet of croix, croiseur, and cruiser.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
crux m (plural crux)
Latin edit
Etymology edit
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 edit
- (Classical) IPA(key): /kruks/, [krʊks̠]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /kruks/, [kruks]
Noun edit
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
Declension edit
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 edit
Related terms edit
Descendants edit
- Balkan Romance:
- Dalmatian:
- Italo-Romance:
- North Italian:
- Gallo-Romance:
- Occitano-Romance:
- West Iberian:
- Insular Romance:
- Borrowings
- → Albanian: kryq
- → Basque: gurutze
- → Proto-Celtic: *kruxsā
- → Proto-Celtic: *krukā
- → 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
- → Old Saxon: krūci (see there for further descendants)
- Southern Common Slavic: → *kryžь
References edit
- “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[2], 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
- to threaten some one with death, crucifixion, torture, war: minitari (minari) alicui mortem, crucem et tormenta, bellum
- “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
- ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959) chapter 611, in Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Indo-European Etymological Dictionary] (in German), volume 2, Bern, München: Francke Verlag, page 611
- ^ 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)-?”