▪ I. pope, n.1
(pəʊp)
Forms: α. 1–2 pápa, 2–6 pape, 4–7 Sc. paip(e; β. 3– pope, 5–6 poope, (7 Sc. pop).
[OE. pápa, a. eccl. L. pāpa (in Juvenal pāpas), ad. late Gr. πάπας, παπᾶς, late var. of πάππας father (orig. a child's word; cf. papa). Thence also It., Sp., Pg. papa, F. pape.
In eccl. Gr. πάπας was applied to bishops (in Asia Minor), patriarchs, and popes; it was a recognized title of the Bp. of Alexandria, a 250. L. pāpa, used as a term of respect for ecclesiastics of high position, esp. bishops (cf. mod. ‘Father’), occurs in Tertullian a 220, and was applied so late as 640 by St. Gall to Desiderius Bp. of Cahors. But from the time of Leo the Great (440–461) it was in the Western Church applied especially to, and from 1073 claimed exclusively by, the Bishop of Rome.]
I. 1. (With capital initial.) a. The Bishop of Rome, as head of the Roman Catholic Church.
Black Pope, Red Pope, White Pope: allusive designations: see quot. 1902.
| α a 900 tr. Bæda's Hist. iv. i. (1890) 252 Þa wæs in þa tid Uitalius papa þæs apostolican seðles aldorbiscop. c 1122 O.E. Chron. an. 1115 On þison ᵹeare sænde se papa Paschalis Raulfe ærceb' on Cantwarabyriᵹ pallium hider to lande. c 1154 Ibid. an. 1124 On þæs dæies..forðferde se pape on Rome Calistus wæs ᵹehaten. c 1205 Lay. 29738 Þas þinges weoren idone Þurh þene pape of Rome. Ibid. 29750 Of Gregorie þan pape [c 1275 þe pope]. a 1300 Cursor M 22596 Gregor þat was pape o rome. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints xxvii. (Machor) 1248 A paipe of Rome. 1405 Lay Folks Mass Bk. 64 For the pape of Rome and al his cardinals. 1483 Cath. Angl. 268/2 A Papes dygnite, papatus. 1549 Compl. Scot 165 Vitht out the lecens of the pape. 1567 Gude & Godlie B. (S.T.S.) 204 The Paip, that Pagane full of pryde. 1609 Skene Reg. Maj., Stat. Robt. III 53 b, Induring the time of the schisme (quhilk was betwix paip Vrban the 6. and Clement the 6). 1627 H. Burton Baiting Pope's Bull 67 Pape and Ape differ but a letter; but their charitie to their Sonnes lesse. |
| β c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 163 Þe holie lorðewes, prophetes, apostles, popes, archebissopes, bissopes, prestes. c 1275 Lay. 10130 An holy man þar was pope. c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 22/90 Þe pope and þe king Edgar. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. viii. 8 Part in þat pardoun þe Pope haþ I-graunted. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 408/2 Poope, papa. 1503 Hawes Examp. Virt. xiii. iii, There was saynt peter the noble pope. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 225 Christes vicar in erth, our holy father y⊇ pope. 1581 Mulcaster Positions xxxvii. (1887) 163 Make not all priestes that stand vpon the bridge as the Poope passeth. 1624 Bedell Lett. x. 138 Paulus V. Vice-deus takes too much vpon him, when hee will bee Pope-almightie. a 1651 Calderwood Hist. Kirk (1843) II. 187 By vertue of the Pop's Bulls. 1700 Farquhar Constant Couple i. i, I would rather kiss her hand than the Pope's toe. 1750 Gray Long Story iv, Tho' Pope and Spaniard could not trouble it. 1861 M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 33 England began to look in another quarter for support against France and the Pope. 1873 Times 30 May 8/1 The only practical result has been an almost unanimous vote by which the General of the Jesuits, Father Becks—the ‘Black Pope’ as he is called—will be instantly..turned out of the apartments. 1902 Daily Chron. 23 Dec. 5/1 Under this [crucifix] is enthroned Leo XIII, clad all in white—whence his name the White Pope—and receives the allegiance of the Red Pope (the Prefect of the Propaganda), the Black Pope (the General of the Jesuits). 1911 Encycl. Brit. XV. 339/2 It is said that the general of the Jesuits is independent of the pope; and his popular name, ‘the black pope’, has gone to confirm this idea. 1976 P. van Rjndt Tetramachus Collection (1977) i. 15 Political details gleaned by the ranks of the ‘black pope’,..head of the Society of Jesus. |
b. An effigy of the pope burnt on the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot (Nov. 5), on Queen Elizabeth's night, or at other times.
Obs. or
dial.| 1673 Evelyn Diary 5 Nov., This night the youths of the Citty burnt the Pope in effigie, after thay had made procession with it. 1678 Dryden Œdipus Epil 34 We know not what you can desire or hope, To please you more, but burning of a Pope. 1732 Pope Ep. Bathurst 214 He..heads the bold Train-bands, and burns a Pope. 1828 Craven Gloss. (ed. 2), Pope, a long pole, to which an effigy of the Pope was attached and burnt on the 5th of Nov. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. viii, II. xxv. 1887 Kentish Gloss., Popeing, to go popeing is to go round with Guy Fawkes on the 5th of November. ‘Please, sir, remember the old Pope!’ |
† c. Short for
pope-day celebration.
Obs. rare.| 1766 J. Adams Diary 5 Nov., Wks. 1850 II. 201 Popes and bonfires this evening at Salem, and a swarm of tumultuous people attending them. 1769 Boston Chron. 6–9 Nov. 361/2 Description of the Pope, 1769. |
2. a. transf. Applied to the spiritual head of a Muslim or other non-Christian religion.
| c 1400 Mandeville (1839) xxxi. 307 In þat yle dwelleþ the Pope of hire lawe, þat þei clepen Lobassy. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 542 In this Citie dwelleth the chiefe Pope, or High Priest, of that Superstition. 1638 Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 51 (Religion of Persees) The Distoore or Pope..has 13 [precepts]. 1836 Pop. Encycl. I. 813/2 Those who were henceforward caliphs,..these Mussulman popes had not by any means the power of the Christian. 1897 Westm. Gaz. 24 Aug. 8/1 A probability that his Majesty of Siam may soon become Pope as well as King—a Buddhist Pope. |
b. fig. One who assumes, or is considered to have, a position or authority like that of the pope.
| 1589 Hay any Work 34 Leaue your Nonresidencie, and your other sinnes, sweete Popes now. 1689 Andros Tracts II. 106 We often say, that ‘every man has a pope in his belly’. 1762–71 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) II. 67 This Coquerel, I find by another note, was Generalis monetarius, or Pope of the mint, into which the reformation was to be introduced. 1801 Strutt Sports & Past. iv. iii. (1876) 446 In the churches immediately dependent upon the papal see [there was elected] a pope of fools. Ibid. 447 The bishop, or the pope, of fools performed the divine service habited in the pontifical garments. 1854 Hawthorne in H. & Wife (1885) II. 40 The family are..followers of Dr. McMill, who is the present Low-Church pope of Liverpool. 1893 Nation (N.Y.) 19 Jan. 46/3 Burne-Jones..accepted him [Rossetti] as the infallible Pope of Art. |
3. a. In early times, A bishop of the Christian Church;
spec. in the Eastern Church, the title of the Bishop or Patriarch of Alexandria.
| 1563 Homilies ii. Idolatry ii. (1859) 185 margin, All notable Bishops were then called Popes. 1570 Foxe A. & M. (ed. 2) 11/1 Y⊇ name Pope.. may peraduenture seme more tolerable, as which hath ben vsed in the olde time emong bishops. 1636 Prynne Unbish. Tim. (1661) 148 From the time of Heraclas, the Patriarch of Alexandria was called Papa: that is, Pope, or Grandfather, (before the Bishop of Rome was so stiled). 1850 Neale East. Ch. I. 126 In correctness of speech,..the Patriarch of Antioch is the only Prelate who has a claim to that title: the proper appellation of the Bishops of Rome and Alexandria being Pope, of Constantinople and Jerusalem, Archbishop. 1902 Encycl. Brit. XXVII. 237/2 ‘The most holy Pope and patriarch of the great city of Alexandria and of all the land of Egypt, of Jerusalem the holy city, of Nubia, Abyssinia, and Pentapolis, and all the preaching of St. Mark’, as he is still called. 1925 [see beatitude 1 b]. 1976 Daily Tel. 24 Aug. 4/5 Pope Shenouda the Third, Patriarch of the Egyptian Coptic Church, said..that the deposition of Abuna Theophilos was ‘illegal and inhuman’. |
† b. Pope John = Prester John.
Obs. rare.
| c 1511 1st Eng. Bk. Amer. (Arb.) Introd. 30/2 They of Indyen hath one prynce & that is pope Iohn. Ibid. 32/1 Pope Iohn..ye mooste myghtyste kynge. |
II. Transferred uses.
4. A small thick-bodied freshwater fish of the Perch family; the Ruff. (So
Ger. papst.)
| 1653 Walton Angler Table, Directions how and with what baits to fish for the Ruffe or Pope. 1740 R. Brookes Art of Angling i. xv. 44 The Ruff or Pope..seldom exceeds six inches [in length], and is cover'd with rough prickly Scales. 1836 F. S[ykes] Scraps fr. Jrnl. 21, I purchased a quantity of pope, which are much like perch. 1883 Fisheries Exhib. Catal. (ed. 4) 111 Dace [and] Pope from Thames. |
† 5. A weevil which infests malt or grain.
Obs.| 1658 Rowland Moufet's Theat. Ins. 1086 The English call the Wheat-worm Kis, Pope, Bowde, Weevil and Wibil. 1743 Lond. & Country Brew. iv. (ed. 2) 259 At Winchester they call this Insect [Weevil], Pope, Black-bob, or Creeper. |
6. A local name for various birds, from their colouring or stout form:
a. The Puffin (
Fratercula arctica).
b. The Bullfinch (
cf. Ger. dompfaff).
c. The Red-backed Shrike (
Lanius collurio).
d. The Painted Finch or Nonpareil (
Passerina ciris).
| 1674 Ray Collect., Water Fowl 92 The Pope, called in some places Puffins. 1864 N. & Q. 3rd Ser. V. 124/2 Pope, Nope, Alp, Red-Hoop, and Tony-Hoop, are all provincial appellations of..the common Bullfinch. 1885 Swainson Prov. Names Birds 47 Red-backed shrike..Pope (Hants). 1894 Newton Dict. Birds, Puffin,..known as the Bottlenose, Coulterneb, Pope, Sea-Parrot. |
7. A hot spiced drink of mull based on any of various wines.
Cf. bishop n. 8,
cardinal n. 5.
| 1920 G. Saintsbury Notes on Cellar-bk. xi. 162 ‘Pope’, i.e. mulled burgundy, is Antichristian, from no mere Protestant point of view. 1965 O. A. Mendelsohn Dict. Drink 264 Pope, a spiced drink made from tokay.., ginger, honey and roasted orange. 1976 Times 15 Jan. 12/8 Many of these hot drinks have clerical names—Bishop being a type of mulled port, Cardinal using claret, and Pope Champagne. 1977 Centuryan (Office Cleaning Services) Christmas 8/2 A mull..using Tokay, the famed Hungarian dessert wine, was known as ‘The Pope’. |
III. 8. attrib. and
Comb. (all from 1), as
pope-burning (1 b),
pope-conjurer,
pope-trumpery;
pope-bulled,
pope-consecrated,
pope-given,
pope-pleasing,
pope-powdered,
pope-prompted,
pope-rid adjs.;
pope-catholic, a Roman Catholic;
pope-day, the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot (Nov. 5);
pope-fly, an insect which infests grain (
cf. sense 7);
† pope-horn, ? a conch-shell as used in celebrating pope-day;
pope-king, the pope as a sovereign;
pope-night, see
pope-day;
pope-worshipper, hostile term for a Roman Catholic.
| 1602 Warner Alb. Eng. ix. xlviii. 226 But Godhoode none in Indian Golde, and *pope-buld hopes shall mis. |
| 1762 Hume Hist. Eng. lxviii. (1806) V. 126 One of the most innocent artifices..was the additional ceremony, pomp, and expense, with which a *pope-burning was celebrated in London. 1873 Christie Dryden's Poems, Hind & P. iii. 10 note, The pope-burnings of Queen Elizabeth's night, which had occurred every year since the excitement of the Popish Plot. |
| c 1554 G. Menewe (title) A Plaine subuersyon..of all the argumentes, that the *Popecatholykes can make for the maintenaunce of auricular confession. 1570 Foxe A. & M. (ed. 2) 1705/1 margin, The procedinges of the Popes catholickes in maintayning their Religion. |
| 1679 C. Nesse Antichrist 228 The *pope-conjurers, necromancers, robbers, murderers. |
| 1779 Sheridan Critic ii. ii, Haughty Spain's *Pope-consecrated fleet. |
| 1821 Columbian Centinel (Boston, U.S.) 10 Nov. 1/4 Monday last, Nov. 5th, being ‘*Pope Day’. 1903 A. Matthews in Publ. Col. Soc. Mass. VIII. 104 It is possible that he [Joyce Junior] continued to parade the streets of Boston on Pope Day. |
| 1750 G. Hughes Barbadoes 84 The *Pope-fly. This insect is better known.. by the great destruction it causes in almost every kind of grain, than by its shape. |
| 1772 Boston Gaz. (U.S.) 3 Feb. 3/2 The ingenuity of some of those nocturnal Sley-frolickers, had added the Drum and Conk-shell, or *Pope-horn, to their own natural, noisy, abilities. |
| 1882 Mario Garibaldi in Macm. Mag. XLVI. 250 We will settle with the pontiff when we have dethroned the *Pope-king. |
| 1773 J. Rowe Lett. & Diary 5 Nov. (1903) 254 Very quiet for a *Pope Night. 18.. Whittier Pr. Wks. (1889) II. 390 Pope Night..was celebrated by the early settlers of New England. |
| 1556 Olde Antichrist 82 b, Yon *pope pleasing slaues. |
| a 1683 Oldham Wks. & Rem. (1686) 39 By Popes, and *Pope-rid Kings upheld, and lov'd. |
| 1603 Harsnet Pop. Impost. xxi. 137 To enritch their purses by selling their *Pope-trumpery. |
| 1579 J. Stubbes Gaping Gulf E iij, Who so marieth with any *pope-worshipper can not tell when to be sure of him. |
b. Combinations with
pope's:
Pope's hat, applied to the head-dress of the Grenadier Guards (
Literary);
† pope's knight, a designation sometimes applied in Scotland to a priest of the Roman Church, who was commonly styled
Schir (
i.e. Sir) So and So, as a rendering of L.
Dominus: see Jamieson,
s.v., and
cf. ‘Sir Hugh Evans’ in
Twelfth Night;
† pope's-milk, a jocular name for some kind of drink;
pope's nose = parson's nose.
| 1886 R. L. Stevenson Kidnapped ii. 5/1 An old red⁓faced general on a grey horse at the one end, and at the other the company of Grenadiers with their *Pope's-hats. |
| 1558 W. Mill in Spottiswood Hist. Ch. Scot. (1655) 95 They call me Walter, and not Sir Walter; I have been too long one of the *Popes Knights. 1795 Brydson View Herald. v. 175 A title [Sir] thus employed judicially, and disclaimed as characterising the pope's knights, appears to have had some other foundation, than mere courtesy. 1808 Jamieson s.v., The phrase, Pope's Knights, seems to have been used only in contempt. 1872 J. A. H. Murray Compl. Scot. Introd. 109 This Sir James Inglis, a ‘Pope's Knight’, was a churchman of considerable distinction at court in the reign of James V. |
| 1635 Brereton Trav. (Chetham Soc.) 130 Burnt aquavitæ and *popes-milk. |
| 1796 Grose's Dict. Vulg. T. (ed. 3), *Pope's Nose, the rump of a turkey. 1854 Thackeray Rose & Ring vii, Giglio..picked the last bone of the chicken—drumsticks,..back, pope's nose, and all. |
▪ II. pope, n.2 (
pəʊp)
[= F., Ger. pope, a. Russ. and OSlav. pop{supu}, app. ad. WGer. *papō (whence OHG. pfaffo), ad. later Gr. παπᾶς priest; see papa2.] A parish priest of the Greek Church in Russia, Serbia, etc.
| 1662 J. Davies tr. Olearius' Voy. Ambass. 139 The other Ecclesiastical Orders are distinguish'd into Proto-popes, Popes, (or Priests) and Deacons. 1723 Pres. St. Russia I. 86 He was followed by a great number of Popes, or secular Priests, and a multitude of People. 1855 Englishwoman in Russia 119 Of course, you are aware that no pope can have a cure unless he be married. 1886 W. J. Tucker E. Europe 26 The Roumanian pope, seated opposite us, practised, amongst other vices, those of a Bacchanalian tendency. 1889 Morn. Post 23 Jan. 2/3 The Church in Hungary, with its keen party fights and its ‘popes’, whose chief function seems to be to make their parishioners dependent on their help in all the ordinary concerns of life. |
▪ III. pope, n.3 (
pəʊp)
[Echoic: see quot.] A name given in New England to the Whip-poor-will (
Antrostomus vociferus).
| 1781 S. Peters Hist. Connecticut 257 The Whipperwill has so named itself by its nocturnal songs. It is also called the pope, by reason of its darting with great swiftness, from the clouds almost to the ground, and bawling out Pope! |
▪ IV. pope, v. [f. pope n.1] 1. intr. (Also
to pope it.) To play the pope, to act as pope.
| 1537 Cromwell in Merriman Life & Lett. (1902) II. 89 Paul popith Jolyly, that woll desire the worlde to pray for the kinges apeyrement. 1624 Bp. R. Montagu Gagg 95 Urban the eight, that now Popeth it. 1646 Bp. Maxwell Burd. Issach. 6 There be..some few Patriarchs..who Lord it, and Pope it over the Lords inheritance. 1966 Duckett's Reg. Feb. 14/2 He [sc. Pope John XXIII] would pope it in his own way, God guiding him. |
2. a. ˈpoping vbl. n., going after the pope, embracing popery. (
Cf. to go a Maying.) See also
pope n.1 1 b,
quot. 1887.
| 1608 H. Clapham Errour Left Hand 8 Are you now ready to go a poping?.. I had thought there had bin many grounds that would have kept you from poping. |
b. To be converted to Roman Catholicism; to become a Roman Catholic.
| c 1916 in E. Waugh Life R. Knox (1959) ii. i. 142 I'm not going to ‘Pope’ until after the war (if I'm alive). 1954 R. Macaulay Last Lett. to Friend (1962) 163, I was..very sorry that your friend..has ‘poped’, as we call it here. 1961 Spectator 19 May 709 In another generation the Upper Chamber may be riddled with families who have poped. 1966 J. Betjeman High & Low 37 Kensit threatens and has Sam Gurney poped? 1977 Observer 27 Nov. 28/6 Wilfred [Knox], an Anglo-Catholic priest who never showed the least inclination to follow his younger brother into the Roman Church—or ‘to Pope’ as it was facetiously called among the undergraduates of Ronnie's generation. |