crosiercroziern.

Etymology: Here two words appear to be confounded, the types of which were respectively Old French crocier , crossier , crosser ‘qui porte la crosse’, medieval Latin crociārius bearer of a crocia , ‘croce’, or ‘crose’, and French croisier , Latin type *cruciārius one who bears or has to do with a cross (crux , croix ). The Anglo-Norman and Middle English forms of these were crocer or croser , and croiser , respectively; but the distinction was lost in the 15–16th cent., when the words cross and crose began to be confounded as crosse : see crose n. In the 16th cent. crosier's or crosier-staff was a common term for the episcopal crook, borne by the crociarius, and at length the crook itself was called the crosier. Many 19th cent. ecclesiastical antiquaries have transferred the name to the cross borne before an archbishop.The history of the application of crosier(s)staff and crosier to the episcopal crook, is not quite clear. The former appellation seems pretty obviously due to the fact that the crook or staff was borne by the ‘crocer’ or ‘crosier’, crociarius, and the latter use may have been short for crosier-staff (the two words being treated as if in apposition); but there is a possibility that both crosier-staff and crosier are due to alteration of the Latin form crocia. In any case, we have to remember that the Middle English name croce, crose was now becoming confounded with cross ‘crux’, and that some new distinctive term was wanted for the crocia, which was found in crosier-staff and crosier. See Rev. J. T. Fowler in Archaeologia 52, ‘On the Use of the Terms Crosier, Pastoral Staff, and Cross’.