▪ I. crucifix, n.
(ˈkruːsɪfɪks)
[a. OF. crucefix, now crucifix, = Pr. crucific, Sp. crucifixo, It. crocifisso, ad. L. cruci fixus, later crucifixus, (one) fixed to a cross, crucified.]
† 1. The Crucified One; Christ on the cross.
| 14.. Prose Legends in Anglia VIII. 155 Þe deþe of þe crucifix [L. mortem crucifixi]. 1485 Caxton Gold. Leg. 168/4 To fore the ymage of the crucyfyxe. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 81 b, Suche may..with mekenes approche to the crucifixe and stande by hym. a 1633 Austin Medit. (1635) 114 To take up our Crosse, and become, like him, a Crucifix. 1649 Jer. Taylor Gt. Exemp. ii. ix. 118 He that sweares by the Crosse, sweares by the Holy Crucifix, that is, Jesus crucified thereon. 1660 ― Duct. Dubit. ii. iii. Rule ix. §31 The brazen serpent..was but a type and a shadow of the holy crucifix. |
2. An image or figure (formerly also a pictorial representation) of Christ upon the cross.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 16 Ualleð a cneon to ower crucifix. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) V. 399 Wiþ a crucifix i-peynt in a table. c 1430 Lydg. Bochas viii. xiii. (1554) 185 a, Where that euer he hath perceiued Crosse or crucifix, he brake them vengeably. 1553 Act 1 Mary Sess. ii. c. 3 §4 If anye person..shall..deface..or..breake any aulter..or any crucifixe or Crosse. 1666 Pepys Diary 20 July, To Lovett's, there to see how my picture goes on to be varnished; a fine Crucifix. 1867 Geo. Eliot F. Holt 3 There was no..crucifix or image to indicate a misguided reverence. 1885 Catholic Dict. (ed. 3) s.v., No crucifix has been found in the Catacombs; no certain allusion to a crucifix is made by any Christian writer of the first four centuries. |
¶ Todd, misunderstanding Jeremy Taylor's use of ‘holy Crucifix’ (in sense 1), inserted a conjectured sense ‘The cross of Christ; figuratively, the religion of Christ’, an error which has been repeated in the Dictionaries.
The misuse of crucifix for ‘cross, figure of the cross’, is frequent in writers of the 18–19th c.
| 1806 J. Grahame Birds Scot. 21 The red brick-wall, with..many a leafy crucifix adorned. 1827 G. Higgins Celtic Druids 126, I make a great distinction between a cross, and a human figure nailed to a cross, two things which, under the name of crucifix, are so often confounded. 1848 Lytton Harold xii. vi, The simple imageless crucifix that stood on its pedestal at the farther end of the tent. |
▪ II. † ˈcrucifix, v. Obs. rare.
[f. L. cruci-fix-, ppl. stem of cruci-fīgĕre: see crucify and fix.]
trans. To crucify.
| 1483 Caxton G. de la Tour I vj b, He bare the Crosse for to be theron crucifixed. 1598 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. i. iv. (1641) 108/2 Messias..mockt, beat..crucifixt. 1635 Swan Spec. M. i. §3 (1643) 17 Crucifixt For our foul sinnes. |
Hence † ˈcrucifixer, crucifier.
| c 1450 Mirour Saluacioun 1708 Crist praying for his Crucifixours. |