Stauros
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Stauros (σταυρός) is the Greek word, usually translated cross, that in the Bible is used in reference to the device on which Jesus was executed. The meaning of the word has changed over the centuries.
The word stauros comes from the verb ἵστημι (histēmi: "straighten up", stand"), which in turn comes from the Proto-Indo-European root *stā-,[1] *stha,[2] stao, "stem", "shoot" (the same root from which come the German Stern, or Stamm, the English "stand", the Spanish word estaca, the Italian stare, of similar meanings).[3][4]
[edit]Homeric and classical Greek
In Homeric and classical Greek, until the early 4th century BC, stauros meant an upright stake, pole,[5][6] or piece of paling, "on which anything might be hung, or which might be used in impaling [fencing in] a piece of ground."[7]
In the literature of that time it never means two pieces of timber placed across one another at any angle, but always one piece alone. ...