[L.: see CROSS.]
ǁ 1. = CROSS, in heraldic and other expressions, as crux ansata, etc.
ǁ 2. Astron. The constellation of the Southern Cross.
1837. Penny Cycl., VIII. 198. Crux, a southern constellation formed out of Halley’s observations by Augustine Royer in his maps published in 1679.
1870. Proctor, Other Worlds, xi. 253. There is in the constellation Crux, a pear-shaped vacuity of considerable size.
3. fig. A difficulty which it torments or troubles one greatly to interpret or explain, a thing that puzzles the ingenuity; as ‘a textual crux.’ Cf. CRUCIFY v. 2 c. (Used by Sheridan and Swift with the sense ‘conundrum, riddle.’)
[Cf. G. kreuz, Grimm, 2178 g, (quoted from Herder 1778, and Niebuhr); according to Hildebrand taken from the scholastic Latin crux interpretum, etc.)
1718. Sheridan, To Swift, Wks. 1814, XV. 56. Dear dean, since in cruxes and puns you and I deal, Pray, Why is a woman a sieve and a riddle? Ibid., Swift To Sheridan, Ibid. 61. As for your new rebus, or riddle, or crux, I will either explain, or repay it in trucks.
1830. Sir W. Hamilton, Philos. Perception, Disc. (1852), 69, note. Ideas have been the crux philosophorum, since Aristotle sent them packing to the present day.
1859. Maurice, What is Revelation, 70. To look upon them as mere cruxes and trivialities which may be left to critics.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), IV. 401. The unity of opposites was the crux of ancient thinkers in the age of Plato.
1888. Dowden, in 19th Cent., XLIII. 336. The consideration of a textual crux in itself sharpens the wits.
4. Comb. † Crux-herrings, herrings caught after the festival of the Exaltation of the Cross (Sept. 14).
1641. S. Smith, Herringbusse Trade, 7. There are also a sort of Herrings called Crux-Herrings, beginning the 14 of Septemb. being the day noted exal. Crucis; these Herrings are made with salt upon salt, and are carefully sorted out.
1727–51. in Chambers, Cycl.
