encrucillada

13th century. From encrucillar (“to cross”), derived from cruz (“cross”), from Latin crux (“cross”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to turn, to bend”). Cognate with Portuguese encruzilhada and Spanish encrucijada.

encrucillada f (plural encrucilladas)

1. crossroad (intersection)
   • 1296, M. Lucas Alvarez & P. P. Lucas Domínguez (ed.), San Pedro de Ramirás. Un monasterio femenino en la Edad Media. Colección diplomática. Santiago: Publicacións de Caixa Galicia, page 447:

     damos et outorgamus a uos [...] hun noso casal que a o moesteiro de Ramiraes en Uallongo enna Encrucillada, o casar en que morou Martin Bóó

     we give and grant to you [...] our farm that the monastery of Ramirás has in Valongo, at the crossroad, the farm where Martín Boo dwelt

2. (figuratively) a difficult situation

• cruz
• cruzar
• Encrucillada
• Encrucilladas

• “encrucillada” in Xavier Varela Barreiro & Xavier Gómez Guinovart: Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval. SLI / Grupo TALG / ILG, 2006-2016.
• “encrucillada” in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega, SLI - ILGA 2006-2013.
• “encrucillada” in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega. Santiago: ILG.
• “encrucillada” in Álvarez, Rosario (coord.): Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués, Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega.