<P> A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two intersecting lines or bars, usually perpendicular to each other . The lines usually run vertically and horizontally . A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of the Latin letter X, is also termed a saltire in heraldic terminology . </P> <P> The word cross is recorded in 10th - century Old English as cros, exclusively for the instrument of Christ's crucifixion, replacing the native Old English word rood . The word's history is complicated; it appears to have entered English from Old Irish, possibly via Old Norse, ultimately from the Latin crux (or its accusative crucem and its genitive crucis), "stake, cross". The English verb to cross arises from the noun c. 1200, first in the sense "to make the sign of the cross"; the generic meaning "to intersect" develops in the 15th century . The Latin word was, however, influenced by popular etymology by a native Germanic word reconstructed as * krukjo (English crook, Old English crycce, Old Norse krokr, Old High German krucka). This word, by conflation with Latin crux, gave rise to Old French crocier (modern French crosse), the term for a shepherd's crook, adopted in English as crosier . </P>

What are the parts of a cross called