Pope is an Italian word, right? We use it in English, obviously, but it's a title, not an English word. Same goes for Papal. We use both of those words in English, but talk to anyone and they'll understand that both are Italian, Latin based, romance language words. Not English.
Yep. So what are we talking about here again?
Right, sorry. Let me clarify. Because there is an English version of the word Pope. It's papa. Of course. I mean, look at it. Same number of letters, same general feel, and considering Pope meant father originally, it makes perfect sense. This is all just common sense. Heck, even the word papal is just papa with an L. This is pretty straightforward. Papa probably came to English via French and finds its roots in the same Latin word as Pope. Case closed, move along.
Not so fast. It's been a while since we did one of these lessons, so let me remind you that language is almost never as easy as you want it to be.
First, to be clear, papa did in fact come to English via French. That part is true. It was first used in the courts and among the nobles, not coming into use among the commoners until the late 18th century (the native English version from that time period is maybe a little surprisingly "daddy"). The French word papa came from the Latin word papa which likely came from the Greek words pappa or pappas. Pretty simple linear etymology. The word has always been considered a child's word, but through the whole process it's always meant "dad". Easy.
Now, Pope. Pope, as it happens, isn't actually really an Italian word. Or at least, that's not how we got it. No, we got it directly from Latin into Old English as uh... papa.
Yes, I know. It's kinda stupid. See, Old English got it when the Romans invaded England and introduced the early forms of Catholicism and Church Latin to the island. Papa was in the vocabulary then, and it was taken as a title by various bishops of the Catholic church until it was exclusively used by the Bishop of Rome starting in the late 1000's. As English evolved from Old to Middle variants, and as the romantic languages evolved in Europe, the word became Pope, a proper noun, and it's stuck there ever since. When the French nobility brought the word papa back to the island, the space Pope used to occupy was suspiciously vacant, and nobody ever bothered looking for the body.
Weird, right? It's weirder. Both words technically found their way into English via Latin, and both originally came from Greek. Pappa and pappas both meant father in one way or another. Pope actually came from papas, which meant bishop or patriarch. Go back into Proto-Indo-European and they both probably came from the same root that meant father or leader, but they diverged really early on into two parallel etymologies with parallel meanings. The fact is that as far back as we can go "Pope" has always meant "bishop, patriarch" or sometimes "tutor", and "papa" has always meant "dad".
Have you ever heard the critique about the title of Pope (in summary that Christ said the only one who should be called "father" was his Father and how dare the Pope take on a title that meant "father" when he wasn't the Father)? Well, yeah, that's... true? Kinda? I guess? But by the time the Bishop of Rome started going by "Pope" they were over 600 years removed from the point when pope's ancestor word might have actually meant "father".
So, you know. There's lots of things you can criticize the early Catholic church for, but the title of their leader actually probably isn't one.
Yep. So what are we talking about here again?
Right, sorry. Let me clarify. Because there is an English version of the word Pope. It's papa. Of course. I mean, look at it. Same number of letters, same general feel, and considering Pope meant father originally, it makes perfect sense. This is all just common sense. Heck, even the word papal is just papa with an L. This is pretty straightforward. Papa probably came to English via French and finds its roots in the same Latin word as Pope. Case closed, move along.
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| Sixtus IV would like you to move along. |
Not so fast. It's been a while since we did one of these lessons, so let me remind you that language is almost never as easy as you want it to be.
First, to be clear, papa did in fact come to English via French. That part is true. It was first used in the courts and among the nobles, not coming into use among the commoners until the late 18th century (the native English version from that time period is maybe a little surprisingly "daddy"). The French word papa came from the Latin word papa which likely came from the Greek words pappa or pappas. Pretty simple linear etymology. The word has always been considered a child's word, but through the whole process it's always meant "dad". Easy.
Now, Pope. Pope, as it happens, isn't actually really an Italian word. Or at least, that's not how we got it. No, we got it directly from Latin into Old English as uh... papa.
Yes, I know. It's kinda stupid. See, Old English got it when the Romans invaded England and introduced the early forms of Catholicism and Church Latin to the island. Papa was in the vocabulary then, and it was taken as a title by various bishops of the Catholic church until it was exclusively used by the Bishop of Rome starting in the late 1000's. As English evolved from Old to Middle variants, and as the romantic languages evolved in Europe, the word became Pope, a proper noun, and it's stuck there ever since. When the French nobility brought the word papa back to the island, the space Pope used to occupy was suspiciously vacant, and nobody ever bothered looking for the body.
Weird, right? It's weirder. Both words technically found their way into English via Latin, and both originally came from Greek. Pappa and pappas both meant father in one way or another. Pope actually came from papas, which meant bishop or patriarch. Go back into Proto-Indo-European and they both probably came from the same root that meant father or leader, but they diverged really early on into two parallel etymologies with parallel meanings. The fact is that as far back as we can go "Pope" has always meant "bishop, patriarch" or sometimes "tutor", and "papa" has always meant "dad".
Have you ever heard the critique about the title of Pope (in summary that Christ said the only one who should be called "father" was his Father and how dare the Pope take on a title that meant "father" when he wasn't the Father)? Well, yeah, that's... true? Kinda? I guess? But by the time the Bishop of Rome started going by "Pope" they were over 600 years removed from the point when pope's ancestor word might have actually meant "father".
So, you know. There's lots of things you can criticize the early Catholic church for, but the title of their leader actually probably isn't one.
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