# crux
## English
### 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: /kɹʌks/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Audio (General Australian):(file)
* Rhymes: -ʌks

### Noun

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.
** 2024 September 11, Richard Brody, ““Winner” Takes Political Comedy Seriously”, in The New Yorker‎:The movie hits its dramatic crux an hour in, when Reality [Winner], at work at the contractor’s facility in Georgia, discovers what she deems a tragic scandal.
* 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, 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.
* (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
## Dutch
### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /krʏks/
* Audio:(file)
* Hyphenation: crux

### Noun

crux f (plural cruces or cruxen)
* crucial or otherwise serious, difficult problem

## French
### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /kʁyks/, /kʁœks/

### Noun

crux m (plural crux)
* (climbing) crux (hardest point of a climb)

## Latin
### Etymology

From Proto-Italic *kruks or *krukis (it is uncertain whether the original form was an i-stem), of unclear 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”). 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.

### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /kruks/, [krʊks̠]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /kruks/, [kruks]

### 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

#### Declension

Third-declension noun.

#### Derived terms

* cruciārius
* crucifer
* crucifīgō
* crucifixor
* cruciō

#### Related terms

* cruciābilis
* cruciābilitās
* cruciābiliter
* 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
** Venetan: 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, crruz, crus, crux
*** Fala: cru
*** 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, cross
*** Irish: cros, crois
*** Manx: crosh
*** Scottish Gaelic: crois, cros
*** → 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, cros, croz, crosse, crosce
****** English: cross
******* → Japanese: クロス (kurosu)
****** Scots: cross, cros
* → 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)
*** → Old Slovak: kríž, krúž
**** Pannonian Rusyn: криж (križ)
**** Slovak: kríž
*** → Lower Sorbian: kśica
*** → Upper Sorbian: křiž
* → Vietnamese: câu rút

### References

* ↑ Pokorny, Julius (1959) “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)-?”

### Further reading

* “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