pontiff: [17] In ancient Rome, members of the highest college of priests were known by the epithet pontifex. This looks as though it should mean ‘bridgemaker’ (as if it were formed from Latin pōns ‘bridge’ – source of English pontoon – with the suffix -fex, from facere ‘make’), but no one has ever been able to make any sense of this, and it is generally assumed that it originated as a loan-word, perhaps from Etruscan, and was subsequently adapted by folk etymology to pontifex.
It was adopted into Christian usage in the sense ‘bishop’. The pope was the ‘sovereign pontifex’, and in due course pontifex came to designate the ‘pope’ himself. The word passed into French as pontife, from which English gets pontiff. => punt
pontiff (n.)
c. 1600, "high priest," from French pontif (early 16c.), from Latin 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.
雙語例句
1. The Pontiff celebrated mass in Mexico City.
教皇在墨西哥城主持了彌撒。
來自柯林斯例句
2. It will mark his first visit to the US as pontiff.
這將是他任職教皇以來首次訪問美國(guó).
來自互聯(lián)網(wǎng)
3. The 82 - year - old pontiff made the comments in his weekly appearance in St.