pope

Pluralpopes

Formspopes, poping, poped

1. 1
   nouncountable

   An honorific used for the Roman Catholic Church's leader, the bishop of Rome, who is regarded as the church's father and also rules Vatican City.

   Crowds filled St. Peter's Square as the new pope appeared on the balcony for the first time.

   Journalists traveling with the pope were allowed to ask him questions on the flight home.

   Similarpontiff

   Note

   The title has been in English since Old English, where pāpa already named the bishop of Rome. Behind it lie Latin papa and Greek papâs, titles once given to priests and bishops in general; by the eighth century the Latin title was kept for Rome alone. Writers may capitalize it or not: the Pope, but also the new pope and any pope.

2. 2
   nounironiccountable

   Any person or body treated as an absolute and supposedly infallible authority, in the manner of the pope.

   For decades he was the pope of film criticism, and one bad review from him could sink a movie.

   The popes of economics dismissed her model for years before the data proved her right.

   Similarguru, oracle

   Note

   Now often a jab rather than a compliment: calling someone a pope says that their verdicts are treated as beyond appeal. It usually takes a field after it, as in the pope of art or the popes of the field, and the plural mocks a whole circle of authorities. The idea is old enough to be proverbial: in 1689 G. Bulkeley cites the saying that every man has a pope in his belly.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   Any head of a religion whose role resembles that of the Roman Catholic pope.

   The sect's founder became its first pope, and each successor since has been chosen by a council of elders.

   Visiting diplomats treated the high priest as a kind of pope, though his authority was purely spiritual.

   Similarpontiff

   Note

   A comparison more than a title: English borrows it to explain another faith's leader by analogy with Rome. The faith usually comes first, as in the Mahometan pope or the Muslim pope, and the label can stick even where no such office exists: Egypt's grand imam Tantawy was called the Muslim pope although Islam has no formal hierarchy of clergy.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   The honorary title of the Coptic bishop of Alexandria as father and head of the Coptic Orthodox Church.

   Coptic bishops from Egypt and abroad gathered for the enthronement of their new pope.

   In his Christmas message, the Coptic pope urged believers to pray for peace in the region.

   Similarpatriarch

   Note

   Alexandria has two popes, and this one heads its Coptic Church; the other leads the city's Eastern Orthodox church. Naming the church, as in the Coptic pope, keeps the two apart and also stops a reader from taking either for the bishop of Rome.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   The title of honor held by the Orthodox bishop of Alexandria, who leads his self-governing church as its father and head.

   The Eastern Orthodox pope of Alexandria presided over a synod of the bishops of his church.

   As pope and patriarch, he oversees Eastern Orthodox parishes far beyond Alexandria itself.

   Similarpatriarch

   Note

   The key word is autocephalous, literally "self-headed": an Orthodox church that governs itself and answers to no higher bishop. Orthodoxy has several such churches, so the pope of Alexandria heads one of them, not the Orthodox world as a whole.

6. 6
   verbintransitive

   To act as a pope, or to behave in the manner of one.

   Some pontiffs pope with grand ceremony; others prefer quiet modesty.

   She tends to pope it around the office, issuing every memo as though it were a decree.

   Note

   The verb often comes with a dummy it, as in he would pope it in his own way. The construction is old: R. Montagu in 1624 writes of Urban VIII "that now Popeth it". The past tense is poped, with one p, which keeps it apart from popped; the Los Angeles Times made a joke of it in 1989: "I saw where the Pope poped."

7. 7
   verbcolloquialintransitive

   To change one's religion by becoming a Roman Catholic.

   His Anglican friends had long joked that he would pope before he turned fifty.

   He had been edging toward Rome for years, and in the end he poped quietly, without telling his old parish.

   Similarconvert

   Note

   The word belongs to Church of England talk about Anglicans who go over to Rome. Print usually fences it with a capital and quotation marks, as 'Pope' or 'Poped', and in 1990 the Sunday Telegraph introduced it as "the term generally employed on these occasions". It is colloquial; in neutral writing, say that someone became a Roman Catholic.

8. 8
   noun

   Alternative form of pop, a Russian Orthodox priest.

   The pope of the Russian parish heard confessions in the little wooden church every Saturday evening.

   A bearded pope led the midnight Easter procession around the Russian Orthodox church.

   Note

   English has also spelled the Russian priest's title this way; its main form is pop. The likeness to the papal title is no accident, since Russian pop comes through Old Church Slavonic from the same Greek papâs. Accounts of Russia rank the clergy as proto-popes, popes and deacons, so the plural means ordinary priests, not rival pontiffs.

9. 9
   nounUKcountable

   A likeness of the pope burned according to British custom on Guy Fawkes Day and occasionally at other times.

   The bonfire society spends weeks building its pope from papier-mâché and old clothes.

   Crowds gathered on the green for the burning of the pope, the high point of Guy Fawkes night.

   Note

   The effigy belongs to a bonfire custom with a political edge, and the phrase that carries it is burning the pope. In Restoration London the burning was a statement: crowds burned the pope to challenge York's succession and to hail the Duke of Monmouth as a Protestant alternative.

10. 10
    noununcountable

    Any mulled wine, traditionally made with tokay, considered similar to the spiced wine called bishop but superior to it.

    The inn's winter menu listed bishop made with port and, for a little more, pope made with tokay.

    He kept the pope just below a simmer so the ginger and roasted orange could steep without boiling off the alcohol.

    Note

    The name ranks the drink: hot wines took the titles of church offices, and the one judged finest got the highest. Recipes never quite agreed. Bishop was Burgundy, Bordeaux or port, cardinal old Rhenish or claret, and pope traditionally tokay, though Champagne and burgundy versions also appear. G. Saintsbury, in 1920, called burgundy pope Antichristian "from no mere Protestant point of view".

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