CROZIER

crozier, or pastoral staff, one of the insignia of a bishop, and probably derived from the _lituus_ of the roman augurs. it is crook-headed, and borne by bishops and archbishops alike (see pastoral staff). the word "crozier" or "crosier" represents the o. fr. _crocier_, med. lat. _crociarius_, the bearer of the episcopal crook (med. lat. _crocea_, _croccia_, &c., fr. _croc_). the english representative of _crocea_ was _crose_, later _crosse_, which, becoming confused with "cross" (q.v.), was replaced by "crozier-staff" or "crozier's staff," and then, at the beginning of the 16th century, by "crozier" (see j. t. taylor, _archaeologia_, iii., "on the use of the terms crosier, pastoral staff and cross"). crucial (from lat. _crux_, a cross), that which has the form of a cross, as the "crucial ligaments" of the knee-joint, which cross each other, connecting the femur and the tibia. from francis bacon's expression _instantia crucis_ (taken, as he says, from the finger-post or _crux_ at cross-roads) for a phenomenon which decides between two causes which have each similar analogies in its favour, comes the use of "crucial" for that which decides between two alternatives, hence, generally, as a synonym for "critical." the word is also used, with a reference to the use of a "crucible," of something which tests and tries.