experimentum crucis

English

Etymology

Modern Latin. From Latin experimentum crucis, "experiment of the cross".

Noun

experimentum crucis (uncountable)

1. A "crucial experiment"; a conclusive test to decide between different hypotheses.
   • 1855, Sir Richard Burton, Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah, Dover, published 1964, page 2:

     What remained for me but to prove, by trial, that what might be perilous to other travellers was safe to me? The “experimentum crucis” was a visit to Al-Híjaz, at once the most difficult and the most dangerous point by which a European can enter Arabia.[1]