pope

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /pəʊp/, US /poʊp/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English pope, inherited from Old English pāpa,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Latin pāpa (“bishop, pope”) (in classical Latin “tutor”),^[2][3] from Ancient Greek πάπας (pápas, “patriarch, bishop”), a later form of πάππας (páppas, “father”).^[2][4][5] See papa.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Bishop of Rome as head of the Roman Catholic Church: before 900, in Alfred's translation of Bede.^[6][3]

Semantic evolution

The title was applied to bishops of Asia Minor and taken by the Bishop of Alexandria about 250.^[2] In the Western Church it was used especially of the Bishop of Rome from Leo the Great (440–461), and claimed by them alone from 1073.^[2][7] The spelling pope replaced pape before 1200;^[3] papal and papacy, later borrowings, keep the original vowel.^[2][5] The spiritual head of another religion is from about 1400,^[6] and a person with authority like a pope's, figuratively, from 1589.^[6] An effigy of the pope burnt on Guy Fawkes Night is from 1673.^[6] Pope's nose, the fleshy tail of a bird, is from 1895,^[2] and popemobile from 1979.^[2]

Timeline

• before 900 – the Bishop of Rome.^[6]
• c. 1400 – a head of another religion.^[6]
• 1589 – figurative use.^[6]
• 1895 – pope's nose.^[2]
• 1979 – popemobile.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. (often Pope) The bishop of Rome, head of the Roman Catholic Church.
2. The patriarch of Alexandria, in the Coptic and Greek Orthodox churches.
3. A person thought to have the highest authority in some field.

Word family

• popeless
• popelike
• popery
• protopope
• antipope
• popedom
• popish
• black pope

Related words

• papal
• papacy
• papist
• papa

Usage notes

A pope is also a parish priest in the Russian Orthodox Church, from Russian pop, from the mid-17th century.^[7][4] In English dialect pope was a name for the bullfinch and for the ruff, a small perch-like fish.^[8][6]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)