Cross

== Name == 
The word ''[[:wikt:cross|cross]]'' is recorded in 11th-century [[Old English]] as ''cros'', exclusively for the instrument of [[Crucifixion of Jesus|Christ's crucifixion]], replacing the native Old English word ''[[rood]]''. The word's history is complicated; it appears to have entered English from [[Old Irish]], possibly via [[Old Norse]], ultimately from the Latin {{wikt-lang|la|crux}} (or its accusative {{lang|la|crucem}} and its genitive {{lang|la|crucis}}), "stake, cross". The English verb ''to cross'' arises from the noun {{circa|1200}}, first in the sense "to make the sign of the cross"; the generic meaning "to intersect" develops in the 15th century. The Latin word was influenced by [[popular etymology]] by a native Germanic word reconstructed as *''krukjo'' (English ''[[:wikt:crook|crook]]'', Old English {{lang|ang|crycce}}, Old Norse {{lang|non|krokr}}, Old High German {{lang|goh|krucka}}). This word, by conflation with Latin {{lang|la|crux}}, gave rise to Old French {{lang|fro|crocier}} (modern French {{wikt-lang|fr|crosse}}), the term for a [[shepherd's crook]], adopted in English as ''[[crosier]]''.

Latin {{lang|la|crux}} referred to the [[gibbet]] where criminals were executed, a stake or pole, with or without {{linktext|transom}}, on which the condemned were impaled or hanged, but more particularly a cross or the pole of a carriage.<ref>Lewis and Short, ''[[A Latin Dictionary]]'': [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DC%3Aentry+group%3D117%3Aentry%3Dcrux crux]</ref> The derived verb {{wikt-lang|la|crucio|cruciāre}} means "to put to death on the cross" or, more frequently, "to put to the rack, to torture, torment", especially in reference to mental troubles.<ref>Lewis and Short, ''[[A Latin Dictionary]]'': [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DC%3Aentry+group%3D116%3Aentry%3Dcrucio crucio]</ref>
{{anchor|furca}}  In the Roman world, {{lang|la|furca}} replaced {{lang|la|crux}} as the name of some cross-like instruments for lethal and temporary punishment,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Jensen|first1=Steffen|last2= Rønsbo|first2=Henrik|title=Histories of Victimhood|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yjQEAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA32|date= 2014|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|isbn=978-0-8122-0931-0|page=32|quote= The jurist Julius Paulus, for example, "gives crucifixion (''furca'' = gallows, the word that replaced the 'holy' word cross in legal literature after [[Constantine the Great|Constantine]])” as one punishment for deserters and for betrayers of secrets (Hengel 1977:39; Bauman 1996:151)}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Pickering|first=F. P.|title=Essays on Medieval German Literature and Iconography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VL6Q8s0SnGcC&pg=PA73|date= 1980|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-22627-1|page=73|quote= According to the article "crux" in [[Pauly-Wissowa]], the old term ''furca'' may have been revived under [[Justinian]] to shield the sacred term from misuse; its shape, the conventional 'gallows', may have been evolved in such a way as to avoid any association with the Christian cross.}}</ref> ranging from a [[forked cross]] to a gibbet or [[gallows]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Rees|first=Abraham|title=The Cyclopædia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9TdOAAAAYAAJ&pg=PT148|year=1824|publisher=Samuel F. Bradford|page=148}}</ref>

The field of etymology is of no help in any effort to trace a supposed original meaning of ''crux''.<ref>Gunnar Samuelsson, [http://khazarzar.skeptik.net/books/crux002.pdf ''Crucifixion in Antiquity''] (Mohr Siebeck 2011), p. 203</ref> A ''crux'' can be of various shapes: from a single beam used for impaling or suspending ({{lang|la|[[crux simplex]]}}) to the various composite kinds of cross ({{lang|la|crux compacta}}) made from more beams than one. The latter shapes include not only the traditional †-shaped cross (the {{lang|la|crux immissa}}), but also the T-shaped cross (the {{lang|la|crux commissa}} or [[tau cross]]), which the [[descriptions in antiquity of the execution cross]] indicate as the normal form in use at that time, and the X-shaped cross (the ''crux decussata'' or [[saltire]]).

The Greek equivalent of Latin ''crux'' "stake, gibbet" is {{transl|grc|[[stauros]]}}, found in texts of four centuries or more before the gospels and always in the plural number to indicate a stake or pole. From the first century BC, it is used to indicate an instrument used in executions. The Greek word is used in [[descriptions in antiquity of the execution cross]], which indicate that its normal shape was similar to the Greek letter [[tau]] ([[Τ]]).<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.vi.ii.ix.html| title = The Epistle of Barnabas, IX}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url = http://logoslibrary.org/clement/stromata/611.html| title = Clement of Alexandria, ''The Stromata'', book VI, chapter 11}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/tertullian/tertullian.marcionem3.shtml| title = Adversus Marcionem, liber III, cap. XXII}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/luc/wl1/wl110.htm| title = Lucian, ''Trial in the Court of Vowels''}}</ref>