cruciverbalist

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*krewk-“back, spine; heap; hill (?)”
2. Latin · learned borrowing fromcruci-
3. English todaycruciverbalist

Learned borrowing from Latin cruci- (a stem of crux (“cross”, noun); possibly from Proto-Indo-European *krewk- (“back, spine; heap; hill (?)”) or *(s)ker- (“to bend; to turn”)) + English verbalist (“one who possesses verbal or oratorical skill”), modelled after crossword (calqued in Latin as cruci- + verbum (“word”, noun)).