Online Etymology Dictionary

Pope: O.E. papa, from M.L. papa "bishop, pope" (in classical L., "tutor"), from Gk. papas "patriarch, bishop," originally "father." Applied to bishops of Asia Minor and taken as a title by the Bishop of Alexandria c.250. In Western Church, applied especially to the Bishop of Rome since the time of Leo the Great (440-461) and claimed exclusively by them from 1073. Popemobile, his car, is from 1979. Papal, papacy, later acquisitions in Eng., preserve the original vowel. Popery (1534) was a hostile coinage of the Reformation.
Gregorian: lit. "pertaining to Gregory," from L.L. Gregorianus, 1653 in reference to music, from Gregory I (pope from 590-600), who traditionally codified it; 1642 in reference to new calendar (introduced 1582) from Pope Gregory XIII.
papist: 1534, "adherent of the Pope," from M.Fr. papiste, from papa "Pope," from Church L. papa (see pope).
papacy: 1393, from M.L. papatia "papal office," from L.L. papa "pope" (see pope).
Sistine: 1769, lit. "pertaining to Pope Sixtus," from It. sistino, from Sixtus, name of five popes, from L. sextus "sixth" (see Sextus). The "chapel" is named for Sixtus IV (Francesco della Rovere), pope 1471-84, who had it built.
literally: 1530s, "in a literal sense," from literal. Erroneously used in reference to metaphors, hyperbole, etc., even by writers like Dryden and Pope, to indicate "what follows must be taken in the strongest admissible sense" (1680s), which is opposite to the word's real meaning.
bathos: "anticlimax, a descent from the sublime to the ridiculous," 1727, from Gk. bathos "depth," related to bathys "deep;" introduced by Pope.
holiness: O.E. halignis (see holy). As title of the Pope, it translates L. sanctitas (until c.600 also applied to bishops).
demarcation: c.1752, from Sp. linea de demarcacion, or Port. linha de demarcaçao, line laid down by the Pope, May 4, 1493, dividing the New World between Spain and Portugal on a line 100 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands. Applied from 1801 to other lines dividing regions.
Uniate: "pertaining to an Eastern Christian church that acknowledges the supremacy of the Pope," 1833, from Rus. uniyat, from unia "unity, union," from L. unus "one" (see one).
bemuse: "to make utterly confused," from be- + muse (cf. amuse), attested from 1735 but probably older, as Pope (1705) punned on it as "devoted utterly to the Muses."
encyclical: "letter sent by the Pope to all the bishops," 1647, from L.L. encyclicus, from L. encyclius, from Gk. enkyklios "in a circle, circular" (see encyclopedia).
Pelagian: 1532, from M.L. Pelagianus, from Pelagius, Latinized form of the name of 4c. British monk who denied the doctrine of original sin. Combated by Augustine, condemned by Pope Zosimus, 418 C.E. His name in Welsh was Morgan, which is based on the root word for "sea" (cf. Gk. pelagos "sea").
conclave: 1390s, from It., from L. conclave "a room which may be locked," from com- "together" + clavis "a key" (see slot (2)). Earliest use is "a place where cardinals meet to elect a pope." Extended sense of "private assembly" is first recorded 1568.
anticlimax: "the addition of a particular which suddenly lowers the effect," 1727, coined by Alexander Pope (1688-1744), from anti- + climax. Anticlimactic (also anti-climactic) is attested from 1898.
critic: 1580s, from L. criticus, from Gk. kritikos "able to make judgments," from krinein "to separate, decide" (see crisis). The Eng. word always had overtones of "censurer, faultfinder."
"A perfect judge will read each work of wit
With the same spirit that its author writ;"
[Pope, "An Essay on Criticism," 1709]
legate: mid-12c., "authorized representative of the Pope," from L. legatus, originally "provided with a commission," pp. of legare "send as a deputy, send with a commission, bequeath," from lex (gen. legis) "contract, law." General sense of "ambassador, delegate, messenger" is from late 14c.
damnation: c.1300, "condemnation to Hell by God," also "fact of being condemned by judicial sentence," from Fr. damnation, from L. damnationem, noun of action from damnare. As an imprecation, attested from c.1600.
Damnation follows death in other men,
But your damn'd Poet lives and writes agen.
[Pope, letter to Henry Cromwell, 1707 or 1708]
pontiff: c.1600, "high priest," from Fr. pontif (early 16c.), from L. pontifex, title of a Roman high priest (see pontifex). Used for "bishop" in Church Latin, but not recorded in that sense in English until 1670s, specifically "the bishop of Rome," the pope. Pontifical, however, is used with this sense from mid-15c.
aught (1): "something," O.E. awiht "aught, anything, something," lit. "e'er a whit," from P.Gmc. *aiwi "ever" (from PIE *aiw- "vital force, life, long life, eternity") + *wihti "thing, anything whatever" (see wight). In Shakespeare, Milton and Pope, aught and ought occur indiscriminately.
poplin: 1710, from Fr. papeline "cloth of fine silk and worsted" (1667), probably from Prov. papalino, fem. of papalin "of or belonging to the pope," from M.L. papalis "papal." The reference is to Avignon, papal residence during the schism 1309-1408 (and regarded as a papal town until 1791), which also was a center of silk manufacture. Influenced in Eng. by Poperinghe, town in Flanders where the fabric was made (but from 18c. the primary source was Ireland).
Arabic (adj.): c.1500, from O.Fr. Arabic (13c.), from L. Arabicus "Arabic" (see Arab). Originally in ref. to gum arabic. Arabic numerals (actually Indian) first attested 1727; they were introduced in Europe by Gerbert of Aurillac (later Pope Sylvester II) after a visit to Islamic Spain in 967-970. A prominent man of science, he taught in the diocesan school at Reims, but the numbers made little headway against conservative opposition in the Church until after the Crusades. The earliest depiction of them in Eng., in "The Crafte of Nombrynge" (c.1350) correctly identifies them as "teen figurys of Inde."
brief (n.): from L. breve (gen. brevis), noun derivative of L. adj. brevis (see brief (adj.)) which came to mean "letter, summary" (specifically a letter of the pope, less ample and solemn than a bull), and came to mean "letter of authority," which yielded the modern, legal sense of "summary of the facts of a case" (1630s). The verb meaning "to give instructions or information to" (1866) was originally "to instruct by a brief" (1862); hence briefing, first attested 1910 but popularized by WWII pre-flight conferences.
antipope: 1570s (mid-13c. in Anglo-L.), from M.L. antipapa, from Gk. anti- "against" (see anti-) + papa (see pope).
ash (1): "powdery remains of fire," O.E. æsce "ash," from P.Gmc. *askon (cf. O.N. aska, O.H.G. asca, Ger. asche, Goth. azgo "ashes"), from PIE base *as- "to burn" (cf. Skt. asah "ashes, dust," Arm. azazem "I dry up," Gk. azein "to dry up, parch"). Symbol of grief or repentance; hence Ash Wednesday (c.1300), from custom introduced by Pope Gregory the Great of sprinkling ashes on the heads of penitents on the first day of Lent. Meaning "mortal remains of a person" is late 13c., in reference to the ancient custom of cremation.
Canterbury: O.E. Cantware-buruh, from Cant-ware "the people of Kent" (see Kent). The Roman name was Duroverno, from Romano-British *duro- "walled town." Pope Gregory the Great intended to make London, as the largest southern Anglo-Saxon city, the metropolitan see of southern England, but Christianity got a foothold first in the minor kingdom of Kent, whose heathen ruler Ethelbert had married a Frankish Christian princess. London was in the Kingdom of Essex and out of reach of the missionaries at first. In part perhaps to flatter Ethelbert, his capital was made the cathedral city.
ambergris: late 15c., from M.Fr. ambre gris "gray amber" (see amber), "a wax-like substance of ashy colour, found floating in tropical seas, and as a morbid secretion in the intestines of the sperm-whale. Used in perfumery, and formerly in cookery" [OED]. King Charles II's favorite dish was said to be eggs and ambergris [Macauley, "History of England"]. Fr. gris is from Frank. *gris (cf. Du. grijs, O.H.G. gris; see gray).
"Praise is like ambergris; a little whiff of it, by snatches, is very agreeable; but when a man holds a whole lump of it to his nose, it is a stink and strikes you down." [Pope, c.1720]
anarchy: 1530s, from M.L. anarchia, from Gk. anarkhia "lack of a leader," noun of state from anarkhos "rulerless," from an- "without" + arkhos "leader" (see archon). Anarch (n.) "leader of leaderlessness," a deliciously paradoxical word, was used by Milton, Pope, Byron. Anarcho-syndicalism is first recorded 1913.
"Either the State for ever, crushing individual and local life, taking over in all fields of human activity, bringing with it its wars and its domestic struggles for power, its palace revolutions which only replace one tyrant by another, and inevitably at the end of this development there is ... death! Or the destruction of States, and new life starting again in thousands of centers on the principle of the lively initiative of the individual and groups and that of free agreement. The choice lies with you!" [Prince Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921)]
asbestos: late 14c., fabulous stone, which, when set afire, would not be extinguished; from O.Fr. abeste, from L. asbestos "quicklime" (which "burns" when cold water is poured on it), from Gk. asbestos, lit. "inextinguishable," from a- "not" + sbestos, verbal adj. from sbennynai "to quench," from PIE base *(s)gwes- "to quench, extinguish" (cf. Lith. gestu "to go out," O.C.S. gaso, Hittite kishtari "is being put out"). Meaning "mineral capable of being woven into incombustible fabric" is from c.1600; earlier this was called amiant (early 15c.), from L. amiantus, from Gk. amiantos "undefiled" (so called because it showed no mark or stain when thrown into fire). Pliny was the first to make the error of calling this asbestos. Supposed in the Middle Ages to be salamanders' wool. Prester John, the Emperor of India, and Pope Alexander III were said to have had robes or tunics made of it.
beard: O.E. beard "beard," from W.Gmc. *barthaz (cf. O.Fris. berd, M.Du. baert, Ger. bart), seemingly from PIE *bhar-dha "beard" (cf. O.C.S. brada, Lith. barzda, and perhaps L. barba "beard"). The verb is from M.E. phrase rennen in berd "oppose openly," on the same notion as modern slang get in (someone's) face. Pubic hair sense is from 1600s; in the 1811 "Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue," the phrase beard-splitter is defined as, "A man much given to wenching" (see beaver).
"The Grecian beard was curly; the Roman, trimmed; but in the Roman Empire shaving became general about 450 B.C., partly for greater safety in close combat, not to be grasped by the beard. When Pope Leo III shaved, in 795, the Roman Catholic clergy followed his practice, and still generally do." [Shipley, p.28]
religion: c.1200, "state of life bound by monastic vows," also "conduct indicating a belief in a divine power," from Anglo-Fr. religiun (11c.), from O.Fr. religion "religious community," from L. religionem (nom. religio) "respect for what is sacred, reverence for the gods," in L.L. "monastic life" (5c.); according to Cicero, derived from relegare "go through again, read again," from re- "again" + legere "read" (see lecture). However, popular etymology among the later ancients (and many modern writers) connects it with religare "to bind fast" (see rely), via notion of "place an obligation on," or "bond between humans and gods." Another possible origin is religiens "careful," opposite of negligens. Meaning "particular system of faith" is recorded from c.1300.
"To hold, therefore, that there is no difference in matters of religion between forms that are unlike each other, and even contrary to each other, most clearly leads in the end to the rejection of all religion in both theory and practice. And this is the same thing as atheism, however it may differ from it in name." [Pope Leo XIII, Immortale Dei, 1885]
Modern sense of "recognition of, obedience to, and worship of a higher, unseen power" is from 1530s. Religious is first recorded early 13c. Transferred sense of "scrupulous, exact" is recorded from 1590s.
potato: 1565, from Sp. patata, from Carib (Haiti) batata "sweet potato." Sweet potatoes were first to be introduced to Europe; in cultivation in Spain by mid-16c.; in Virginia by 1648. Early 16c. Port. traders carried the crop to all their shipping ports and the sweet potato was quickly adopted from Africa to India and Java. The name later (1597) was extended to the common white potato, from Peru, which was at first (mistakenly) called Virginia potato, or, because at first it was of minor importance compared to the sweet potato, bastard potato. Sp. invaders in Peru began to use white potatoes as cheap food for sailors 1536. The first potato from South America reached Pope Paul III in 1540; grown in France at first as an ornamental plant. According to popular tradition, introduced to Ireland 1565 by John Hawkins. Brought to England from Colombia by Sir Thomas Herriot, 1586. Ger. kartoffel (17c.) is a dissimilation from tartoffel, ult. from It. tartufolo (V.L. *territuberem), originally "truffle." Frederick II forced its cultivation on Prussian peasants in 1743. The Fr. is pomme de terre, lit. "earth-apple;" a Swed. dialectal word for "potato" is jordpäron, lit. "earth-pear." Colloquial pronunciation tater is attested in print from 1759. To drop (something) like a hot potato is from 1846. Children's counting-out rhyme that begins one potato, two potato first recorded 1885 in Canada.
Dutch: c.1380, used first of Germans generally, after c.1600 of Hollanders, from M.Du. duutsch, from O.H.G. duit-isc, corresponding to O.E. þeodisc "belonging to the people," used especially of the common language of Germanic people, from þeod "people, race, nation," from P.Gmc. *theudo "popular, national" (see Teutonic), from PIE base *teuta- "people" (cf. O.Ir. tuoth "people," O.Lith. tauta "people," O.Prus. tauto "country," Oscan touto "community"). As a language name, first recorded as L. theodice, 786 C.E. in correspondence between Charlemagne's court and the Pope, in reference to a synodical conference in Mercia; thus it refers to Old English. First reference to the German language (as opposed to a Germanic one) is two years later. The sense was extended from the language to the people who spoke it (in Ger., Diutisklant, ancestor of Deutschland, was in use by 13c.). Sense narrowed to "of the Netherlands" in 17c., after they became a united, independent state and the focus of English attention and rivalry. In Holland, duitsch is used of the people of Germany. The M.E. sense survives in Pennsylvania Dutch, who immigrated from the Rhineland and Switzerland. Since 1608, Dutch (adj.) has been a "pejorative label pinned by English speakers on almost anything they regard as inferior, irregular, or contrary to 'normal' (i.e., their own) practice" [Rawson]. E.g. Dutch treat (1887), Dutch uncle (1838), etc. -- probably exceeded in such usage only by Indian and Irish -- reflecting first British commercial and military rivalry and later heavy Ger. immigration to U.S.
The Dutch themselves spoke English well enough to understand the unsavory connotations of the label and in 1934 Dutch officials were ordered by their government to stop using the term Dutch. Instead, they were to rewrite their sentences so as to employ the official The Netherlands. [Rawson]
Dutch elm disease (1927) so called because it was first discovered in Holland (caused by fungus Ceratocystis ulmi).