CRUCIFY

[Dr. Goodword]

• crucify •

Pronunciation: kru-si-fai • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb, transitive

Meaning: 1. To execute someone by nailing them to a post with a crossbar to the arms. 2. To punish or berate someone viciously, brutally.

Notes: Unfortunately, this word is so useful it has begotten a large family of words referring to torture and torment. Someone who crucifies in either of the two senses above is a crucifier and the act of crucifying is crucifixion. If excruciating pain represents the extreme in torture, that is because excruciate is based on the same sense of crucifixion.

In Play: Today Christians throughout the world commemorate the day on which Jesus of Nazareth arose from the dead after having been crucified, a day now called Easter (after the Anglo-Saxon goddess of the vernal equinox, Eastre). Aside from Easter, we use this word today only in the figurative sense: "Dad is going to crucify you when he finds out you wrecked the car!"

Word History: Today's very Good Word was borrowed from Old French crucifier "to crucify", the heir to Latin crucifigere "to crucify" made up of crux (cruc-s) "cross" + figere "to fasten, affix". The original Proto-Indo-European root behind crux turns up in many modern languages. English crook and crutch share the same origin. Of course, we borrowed crux itself from Latin to refer to the central point of an issue. This sense of crux goes back to a reference to a crossroads at which a decision must be made. The adjective crucial "decisive" reflects this same sense. The F in the Latin verb figere came from an older PIE word dhig- "to fix, set", which seems to have come to English as dig. The semantic road between these two words is too long to travel in this Good Word entry.

[Slava]

Lest we forget, crucifixion is a rood way to die.

[Perry]

You sent me off to learn a new word, you did.

[Slava]

You sent me off to learn a new word, you did.

So I came a cross, eh?

[Stargzer]

He thought about taking a chancel, but Perry's not a rood dude.