English
crucial
Crucial comes from French crucial ‘cruciform’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- ‘to turn, to bend’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)ker-‘to turn, to bend’root as named · steps between not traced
- Frenchc. 1600–presentcrucial‘cruciform’
- Englishearliest quotation 2014crucial
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)ker-‘to turn, to bend’root as named · steps between not traced
- Frenchc. 1600–presentcrucial‘cruciform’
- Englishearliest quotation 2014crucial
Earliest quotation: 2014, Nicole Vulser, Perfume manufacturers must cope with the scarcity of preciou: “The perfume industry is facing a major problem: maintaining…”
The story
The meaning “decisive, critical” is extended from a logical term, Instantias Crucis, adopted by Francis Bacon in his influential Novum Organum (1620); the notion is of cross fingerboard signposts at forking roads, thus a requirement to choose.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- ‘to turn, to bend’
short, share, card, across, cancer, score, cross, screen, shirt, circle, circuit, curve, scare, skirt, circulation, curb, scar, circus, cancellation, shrine, carnival, corona, crest, shear, scrutiny, scorpion, incarceration, circa, shred, carnage, raffle, corolla, scorn, shrewd, shard, circulate, carcinoma, riddance, carnivorous, corgi, 119 more
Today it means
adj Essential or decisive for determining the outcome or future of something; extremely important; vital.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- / crucial