What is the origin of the word “pope”?
“…The word “pope” means father. In ancient Greek it was a child’s term of affection but was borrowed by later Latin as honorific. Both Greek-speaking Eastern and Latin-speaking Western Christians then applied it to priests and bishops and patriarchs (‘head of the family’); and still today priests of the Orthodox Churches of Greece, Russia and Serbia call their parish priests ‘pope’. Gradually, however, Latin started to restrict its usage. At the beginning of the 3rd century, ‘papa’ was a term of respect for churchmen in high positions; by the 5th century, it was applied particularly to the bishop of Rome; and after the 8th, as far as the West was concerned, the title was exclusively his….” Source: Chronicle of the Popes, by P.G.
