Etymology
Ancient Greek has two verbs for crucify: ana-stauro (ἀνασταυρόω), from stauros, "stake", and apo-tumpanizo (ἀποτυμπανίζω) "crucify on a plank." together with anaskolopizo (ἀνασκολοπίζω "impale"). In earlier pre-Roman Greek texts anastauro usually means "impale." The word xylon "piece of wood" was also used, but for a gallows, not a stake, as in the Aristophanes comedy The Frogs; "if you stumble, at least you'll hang from a respectable tree."
The Latin term crux may mean a gallows or a stake.
The English term crucifix derives from the Latin crucifixus or cruci fixus, past participle passive of crucifigere or cruci figere, meaning "to crucify" or "to fix to a cross".
Read more about this topic: Crucifixion
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“The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.”
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