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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.
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.
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”). This explanation suffers phonetic, morphological and semantic problems. A modern hypothesis connects Irishcrúach(“heap, hill”), Gaulish*krouka(“summit”), Proto-Brythonic*krʉg(“small hill; pillar”), Old Norsehrúga(“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.
“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
^ 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)-?”