pontifex

Forms

pontifex m (genitive pontificis); third declension^[1] It is also spelled pontufex, and pontefex in an inscription.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is apparently from Latin pōns (“bridge”) + -fex (“maker”), from faciō (“to make”), “bridge-maker”.^[2][1][4][5] Lewis & Short and the TLL point out that the Romans themselves no longer knew the original sense;^[3][5] de Vaan reports that most scholars accept “bridge-maker”, in the sense of one who mediates between gods and men.^[6] Since pōns continues Proto-Indo-European *pónt-h₁-s (“road”), the TLL compares an Old Indic compound “path-maker” used of seers.^[6][5] Varro quotes the pontifex maximus Quintus Scaevola, who derived it from possum and faciō.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus.^[6][4] Cato mentions the record kept on a tablet at the house of the pontifex maximus.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The pontificēs were a college of priests with supreme control over the public religion of Rome; their head was the pontifex maximus (Cato, Cicero, Livy), and the pontificēs minōrēs, first assistants, became a lower grade of priest.^[2][3] Juvenal calls the emperor Domitian pontifex summus.^[2]

In Christian Latin it was a bishop, and especially the bishop of Rome, summus pontifex could be an archbishop or the Pope, and pontifex alone came to mean the Pope.^[7][8][1] English pontiff (c. 1600) comes from it through French.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^[6][4]
• 234–149 BC – Cato mentions the pontifex maximus.^[2][4]
• 116–27 BC – Varro reports Scaevola's etymology.^[3][4]
• c. 1600 – English pontiff.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pontifex, one of the college of priests in charge of Roman public religion, pontifex maximus, its head.^[2][3][1]
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A bishop, summus pontifex, an archbishop.^[7][8]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) The Pope.^[7][8][1]

Word family

• pontificālis
• pontificātus
• pontificium
• pontificius

Related words

• pōns
• faciō
• English pontiff

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com