fulcrum

Borrowed from Latin fulcrum (“bedpost, foot of a couch”), from fulciō (“prop up, support”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈfʌlk.ɹəm/, /ˈfʊlk.ɹəm/

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fulcrum (plural fulcrums or fulcra)

1. (mechanics) The support about which a lever pivots.

   It is possible to flick food across the table using your fork as a lever and your finger as a fulcrum.

   • 2010, John Allison, Bad Machinery

     MILDRED: Archimedes said give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it and I will move the world.

     CHARLOTTE: Yeah she said that twaddle eight or nine times.

   • 2012 March 1, Henry Petroski, “Opening Doors”, in American Scientist‎, volume 100, number 2, page 112-3:

     A doorknob of whatever roundish shape is effectively a continuum of levers, with the axis of the latching mechanism—known as the spindle—being the fulcrum about which the turning takes place.

2. (figurative) A crux or pivot; a central point.
   • 2006, Rebecca Langlands, Sexual Morality in Ancient Rome (page 119)

     By this point the fulcrum of concern is the stuprum of men upon men, described as more prevalent than that upon women.

   • 2021 March 31, Phil McNulty, “England 2-1 Poland: What shape are Gareth Southgate's side in?”, in BBC Sport‎:

     Chelsea's Mason Mount is a top-class talent while West Ham midfielder Declan Rice has moved his game on to another level this season and will be the fulcrum of England's midfield this summer.

From fulciō +‎ -crum.

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈful.krum/, [ˈfʊɫ̪krʊ̃ˑ]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈful.krum/, [ˈfulkrum]

fulcrum n (genitive fulcrī); second declension

1. bedpost
2. foot (of a couch)
3. couch

Second-declension noun (neuter).

• Catalan: fulcre
• English: fulcrum
• French: fulcrum
• Italian: fulcro
• Portuguese: fulcro
• Spanish: fulcro

• “fulcrum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “fulcrum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• fulcrum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
• “fulcrum”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin