Cross

What is a cross?

Cross (Dutch: kruis, in this sense X-cross) is, in a playroom, the short word for a standing frame of two diagonal beams that someone is fixed to with arms and legs spread. It is the same construction that is called a St Andrew’s Cross in full. In listings for play spaces you almost always see the short form.

Why one word means so many things

Because in Dutch, kruis names not a thing but a shape.

Wigardus à Winschoten wrote it down as far back as 1681, in his sailor’s dictionary Seeman, quoted in the Etymologiebank: a kruis is nothing more than “een werktuig van dwershouten aan een gehegt” (a tool of crossed timbers joined together), and from that it follows “dat alles, wat sulk een gedaante heeft, een kruis genaamd werd” (that everything with such a shape came to be called a kruis). In one breath he names the cross of Christ, that of Saint Andrew and that of Jerusalem. Four centuries later a wooden X in a playroom is called a kruis for exactly the same reason.

The word itself is old. The Etymologisch Woordenboek van het Nederlands dates the earliest attestation to around 991 in the place name Crucilo, the Kruisselt near Losser, and gives the meaning “paal met dwarsbalk waaraan de doodstraf werd voltrokken” (a post with a crossbeam on which the death penalty was carried out) around 1240. It comes from Latin crux, which also gave rise to the figurative senses marteling (torture) and ellende (misery). Meanwhile kruis in Dutch also came to denote the body part between the legs, and that is why it is handy to use the full name the moment anything goes on paper.

Why people want to be on a cross

To keep standing while you can do nothing more. On a cross you cannot turn away and cannot lower your arms. How you stand there is someone else’s decision. For the person hanging from it the appeal is in that imposed posture, for the other in the overview: back or front fully open, and everything within reach.

The limit is time. Standing upright with your arms raised is more tiring than half an hour on a bench, and you cannot shift.

What to watch for with the word cross

Ask what is meant. If a host writes “cross” in the inventory list, that can be an adjustable St Andrew’s Cross, but also a fixed frame without a middle attachment, or something that only works at one height. In the rental overview here on the site you can see how far that varies. At one provider the cross is indoors, between a leather bench and a gynecological chair. At a cabin in the woods it stands outside, next to a bondage swing and a pillory.

For what happens next, and how long someone can responsibly stand in it, St Andrew’s Cross is the page.

Where this fits on this site

Being restrained is on my yes-list, light or firm. If being tied standing makes you curious, the page about the BDSM date explains how we decide beforehand how far that goes.

Sources

• kruis. Etymologiebank, hosted by the Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, with among others the entry from the Etymologisch Woordenboek van het Nederlands (Philippa et al., 2003-2009), the entry from Van Veen & Van der Sijs (1997) and the passage from Wigardus à Winschoten, Seeman (Leiden 1681). Provides the earliest attestation around 991 in the toponym Crucilo (Kruisselt near Losser), the 1240 meaning “paal met dwarsbalk waaraan de doodstraf werd voltrokken” (a post with a crossbeam on which the death penalty was carried out), the borrowing from Latin crux with the figurative meaning “marteling, ellende” (torture, misery), Winschoten’s observation that a kruis is “een werktuig van dwershouten aan een gehegt” and that therefore “alles, wat sulk een gedaante heeft, een kruis genaamd werd”, with the cross of Christ, of Saint Andrew and of Jerusalem in one enumeration, and the meaning “lichaamsdeel, stuit” (body part, tailbone) that Dutch lent to Danish among others.
• kruis. Algemeen Nederlands Woordenboek, Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal. Provides the grammatical data: neuter gender, het kruis, with both kruisen and kruizen as plural and kruisje as diminutive.

Related terms

• St Andrew’s Cross. The same construction under its full name, with the saintly origin and the difference between the two sides.
• Bondage. What being restrained on a cross falls under.
• Spanking bench. The other classic piece of play furniture, with the weight on the knees instead of the feet.
• Bench. The lying variant, for anyone who wants to be able to stay longer than a few minutes.
• Dungeon. The space where such a cross usually stands, and the inventory around it.
• Pillory. The piece of furniture you fold shut instead of unfold.
• Playroom. The space this piece of furniture stands in.
• X-cross. The third word for this same frame, and why the trade writes exactly that form.