Chapter Cronian Sea to Cross and Pile of C by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Cronian Sea to Cross and Pile

Cronian Sea The north polar sea. Pliny says, "A Thule unius diei navigatione mare concretum, a nonnullis cronium appellatur. " (Natural History, iv. 16.)

"As when two polar winds blowing adverse
Upon the Cronian sea."
Milton: Paradise Lost, x. 290.

Crony A familiar friend. An old crony is an intimate of times gone by. Probably crone with the diminutive ie for endearment, and equivalent to "dear old fellow," "dear old boy." (See Crone.)

Crook in the Lot There is a crook in the lot of everyone. There is vexation bound up in every person's lot of life, a skeleton in the cupboard of every house. A crook in a stick is a bend, a part where the stick does not run straight, hence a "shepherd's crook." When lots were drawn by bits of stick, it was desirable to get sticks which were smooth and straight; but it is very hard to find one without a crook, knot, or some other defect. Boston has a book entitled The Crook in the Lot.

Crooked as Crawley (See Crawley .)

Crooked Sixpence (A). Said to bring luck. (See Money .)

Crooked Stick (A). A self-willed fellow who will neither lead nor drive, neither be led nor driven. (See Crook.)

Crop Up (or) Out. To rise out of, to appear at the surface. A mining term. Strata which rise to the surface are said to crop out. We also say, such and such a subject crops up from time to time - i.e. rises to the surface; such and such a thing crops out of what you were saying - i.e. is apropos thereof.

Cropper He came a cropper. He fell head over heels. To get a cropper. To get a bad fall. "Neck and crop" means altogether, and to "come a cropper" is to come to the ground neck and crop.

Croquemitaine [croak-mit-tain ], the bogie raised by fear. The romance so called, in three parts. The first relates the bloody tournament at Fransac, between the champions of the Moorish King Marsillus and the paladins of Charlemagne. The second is the Siege of Saragossa by Charlemagne. The third is the allegory of Fear-Fortress. The epilogue is the disaster at Roncesvallës. The author is M. l'Epine. There is an English version by Tom Hood, illustrated by Gustave Doré (1867). (See Fear-Fortress, Mitaine, etc.)

Croquet A game played with a sort of bandy stick. The crook was superseded by a kind of mallet. Du Cange gives "Croque, croquebois, croquet, bâton armé d'un croc, ou qui est recourbé" (vol. vii. p. 115). The art of the game is to strike your balls through very small hoops arranged in a given order.

Crore (A), in the East Indies, means a hundred lacs of rupees, equal nominally, in round numbers, to a million sterling. (Pronounce cror, Hindustanee karor.)

Cross The cross is said to have been made of four sorts of wood (palm, cedar, olive, and cypress), to signify the four quarters of the globe.

"Ligna crucis palma, cedrus, cupressus,oliva."

   We are accustomed to consider the sign of the cross as wholly a Christian symbol, originating with the crucifixion of our Redeemer. This is quite erroneous. In ancient Carthage it was used for ornamental purposes. Runic crosses were set up by the Scandinavians as boundary marks, and were erected over the graves of kings and heroes. Cicero tells us (De Divinatione, ii. 27, and 80, 81) that the augur's staff with which they marked out the heaven was a cross. The ancient Egyptians employed the same as a sacred symbol, and we see on Greek sculptures, etc., a cake with a cross; two such buns were discovered at Herculaneum.
   It was a sacred symbol among the Aztecs long before the landing of Cortes. (Malinche. In Cozumel it was an object of worship; in Tabasco it symbolised