crux

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

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /kɹʌks/

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• Rhymes: -ʌks

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", pages 32-47 in Carol Schreier Rupprecht (ed.) The Dream and the Text: Essays on Literature and Language.

     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, vol. 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.

• cross
• crucial

• → French: crux

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

• IPA^(key): /krʏks/

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• Hyphenation: crux

crux f (plural cruces or cruxen)

1. crucial or otherwise serious, difficult problem

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]

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

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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

Third-declension noun.

Borrowings

• “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