[Peace-discuss] AWARE

[E. Wayne Johnson]

Although your observations on pontifices and pontificatorsare too often 
correct, I think that the
tendency of the people is to be rejecting the message even when it 
really is from God.

On 9/3/2009 9:34 AM, John W. wrote:
> I think there's a simpler explanation for what happened 
> etymologically.  The pontifex - the Roman high priest - was SUPPOSED 
> to be a bridge-builder between God and man.  But human beings being 
> the nasty, brutish, self-centered creatures that they are, the 
> pontifex got all full of himself, enthralled by his own power and the 
> power of his own words, narcissistic.  As a consequence, he became a 
> bloviator and a tyrant.  And that's the meaning that we're left with 
> today.
>
> John
>
>
> On Thu, Sep 3, 2009 at 9:01 AM, C. G. Estabrook <galliher at illinois.edu 
> <mailto:galliher at illinois.edu>> wrote:
>
>     Here's the OED pontificating, as it were--
>
>     [< classical Latin pontific-, pontifex Roman high priest, in
>     post-classical Latin also pope (4th cent.), bishop (5th cent.;
>     frequently from 7th cent. in British sources), archbishop
>     (frequently from 8th cent. in British sources), apparently
>     (following ancient etymologists) < ponti-, alternative stem of
>     pons bridge (see PONS n.) + -fic-, -fex, combining form of facere
>     to do, make (see FACT n.), though this may represent merely a folk
>     etymology ... In sense 4 chiefly used punningly or allusively with
>     reference to the supposed etymology.]
>            [...]
>        4. A bridge-maker. Also fig.
>     1686 J. F. G. CARERI Let. 6 Apr. in Coll. Voy. & Trav. (1732) 88/1
>     Jucundus on the Seyne two bridges laid, For which he well may
>     Pontifex be said. Pontifex has here a double meaning, as
>     signifying a bridge-maker; whereas the true acceptation of it is a
>     bishop. 1834 T. CARLYLE Sartor Resartus I. xi. 28/2 Never perhaps
>     since our first Bridge-builders, Sin and Death, built that
>     stupendous Arch from Hell-gate to the Earth, did any Pontifex, or
>     Pontiff, undertake such a task. 1877 Outl. Hist. Relig. 237 No
>     special deity claimed the services of the Pontifices, the bridge-
>     or road-makers. 1927 Jrnl. Royal Anthropol. Instit. 57 248 Moses
>     was a Pontifex indeed. His device, whatever it may have been,
>     perhaps the choice of an interval between the floods, became a
>     miracle. 1999 Hinduism Today (Nexis) 30 Apr. 25 He was a
>     Pontifex..a man throwing bridges over different rivers. Vedic
>     heritage and Greek Pagan thought, Hindu worldview and Germanic
>     tradition.
>
>     John W. wrote:
>
>         ... Incidentally, in my own dictionary perusings and musings -
>         to say nothing of my life experience - I'm not seeing anything
>         about a person who pontificates as being a "bridge builder":
>
>
>         *pon·tif·i·cate
>         *
>          (pŏn-tĭf'ĭ-kĭt, -kāt')   n.  The office or term of office of
>         a pontiff.
>         intr.v.   (-kāt') *pon·tif·i·cat·ed*, *pon·tif·i·cat·ing*,
>         *pon·tif·i·cates*
>
>           1. To express opinions or judgments in a dogmatic way.
>           2. To administer the office of a pontiff.
>
>
>
>         [Latin pontificātus, from pontifex, pontific-, /pontifex/; see
>         * pontifex*. V., from Medieval Latin pontificāre, pontificāt-,
>         /to act as an ecclesiastic/, from Latin pontifex.]
>         *pon·tif'i·ca'tion*/ n./, *pon·tif'i·ca'tor*/ n.
>
>         /
>
>         The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language,
>         Fourth Edition
>         Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
>         Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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