crucible

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a vessel made of material that does not melt easily

   The metal glowed red inside the crucible.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Crucible ultimately derives from Latin crux, meaning “cross.” Recorded in late Middle English, it originally denoted a night light of the sort that might be hung before a crucifix.

From Latin crucibulum (“night-lamp, metallurgic melting-pot”), apparently a derivative of crux (“cross”), perhaps by analogy to thūribulum (“censer”) and suffix -bulum, or from crucio (“to torment”).

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