crux

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”).

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /kɹʌks/

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (General Australian):

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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”, 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^[1]:

     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.

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^[2], 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.

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/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: crux

crux f (plural cruces or cruxen)

1. crucial or otherwise serious, difficult problem

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

• IPA^(key): /kʁyks/, /kʁœks/

crux m (plural crux)

1. (climbing) crux (hardest point of a climb)

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”).^[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 Latin) IPA^(key): /kruks/, [krʊks̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /kruks/, [kruks]

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^[3], 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