crucifix

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English crucifix, also crusifix,^[2] borrowed from Anglo-Norman crucifix,^[2][3] also written crucefix and crucifis and recorded from about 1136.^[3] Old French had crucefix,^[4][5][6] also crocefis,^[1][2] now French crucifix,^[4][5][6] from Late Latin crucifīxus (“the crucified one”),^[7][8][9] the past participle of crucifīgō (“to crucify”).^[7][8] Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com take the English word directly from Latin.^[8][9] The Latin began as a phrase, crucī fīxus (“fixed to a cross”),^[4][6][10] from the dative of crux (“cross”) and the participle of fīgō (“to fasten, fix”).^[6][8] The OED compares Old Occitan crucific, Spanish crucifixo and Italian crocifisso.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

An image of Christ on the cross: about 1225, in the Ancrene Riwle, whose text is perhaps from before 1200.^[4] Etymonline has the early 13th century,^[5] and Dictionary.com 1175–1225.^[9] The Anglo-Norman word had this meaning from about 1136.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word first named the image or, as the Latin phrase did, the crucified Christ himself: the MED has both in Middle English, with a painting of Christ on the cross and a vision of him.^[2] The OED first records "the Crucified One" in 1483, in Caxton, and it was dead by 1660;^[4] the Shorter Oxford has it from Middle English to the mid 17th century.^[11] Weekley quotes Jeremy Taylor for it: "He that swears by the Cross swears by the Holy Crucifix, that is, Jesus crucified thereon".^[12] Caxton also used crucifix as a verb, "to crucify", from 1484, and it lasted until 1635.^[4] Johnson (1755) still defined the noun as a picture or statue of Christ's passion, quoting Addison,^[13] but the OED notes that pictures are now excluded, while a plain cross could be called a crucifix from 1806.^[4] In the mid 20th century gymnasts gave the name to a position on the rings with the arms held straight out.^[11][8]

Timeline

• c. 1225 – an image of Christ on the cross.^[4][5]
• 1483 – the crucified Christ, in Caxton (obsolete after 1660).^[4]
• 1484 – verb, to crucify, in Caxton (obsolete after 1635).^[4]
• 1806 – a cross, a figure of the cross.^[4]
• mid 20th century – a position in gymnastics on the rings.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A figure or image of Christ on the cross: A small crucifix hung above the bed.^[14][8][4]
2. A cross used as a Christian emblem.^[8][4]
3. A move in gymnastics on the rings, with both arms held out straight from the sides of the body.^[8][11]
4. (obsolete, 1483–1660) The crucified Christ.^[4][8][11]

Word family

• crucificial

Related words

• crucify
• crucifixion
• cross
• crux
• fix
• crusade

Usage notes

The OED warns that Todd misread Jeremy Taylor's holy Crucifix and added a conjectured sense, the cross of Christ or figuratively the religion of Christ, which later dictionaries repeated in error.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins