Happy St. Patrick's Day, Pope Francis

This week the first pope from the new world, the first pope to take the name Francis, was elected. While he has not been eremitic or peccant, everyone hopes he will have limpid vision for the church and be apotropaic if not alembic.

Eremitic is one of those words to come from Church Latin. Back in the time of St. Francis of Assisi, in about 1200, it came into use in English from the Latin word eremita. It is defined as a hermit or recluse, especially one who is so because of a religious vow. Eremite is used as a “learned form” of the word hermit and for the last several hundred years has been used mostly in poetry or rhetoric except when used to describe specific examples from church history. Pope Francis was definitely not eremitic – early accounts of his lifestyle indicate he was known to take public transportation as a Cardinal.

Pope Francis also is not peccant, a word that primarily means sinful or guilty of a moral offense but also can mean violating a rule or established practice. While his papacy is historic one account calls him theologically orthodox and socially conservative. Peccant came to English in about 1600 from another Latin word, peccantem, the present participle form of the Latin word for “to sin,” peccare. We also get the more common English word peccadillo from this root word. 

Limpid is a word that means a lot of good things. Primarily used to describe something clear or transparent, like water or air, it also means lucid and free from obscurity and even more appropriately can mean completely calm or without distress or worry. It came to English about the same time as peccant, but came through French from Late Latin. The French word limpide was derived from the Latin word limpidus, which meant clear. Limpa was the word for “water goddess” and sometimes was the word for water. We are all hopeful that Pope Francis’s leadership is one of clarity and peace.

Alembic, which used to refer to a vessel formerly used in distilling, now describes anything that transforms, purifies, or refines, a good word for what the church needs now. It came into English back in the late 1300s, from the Middle French word alambic, which they got from Old Spanish who got it from the Arabic al-anbiq, or “distilling flask.” The Arabs got the word from the Greeks, who called their cup an ambix, and the Greeks may have gotten the word from an unknown Semitic source.

We also hope Francis’ papacy is apotropaic, which is from the Greek word apotropaios which means “averting evil.” It came to English only 130 years ago, and is still an adjective used to describe something that is intended to ward off evil.

Since today is St. Patrick’s day, the blog would not be complete without an Irish reference. It is given to us by etymonline.com, whose description of apotropaic is accompanied by their use of the word in their etymology of the English noun sheela na gig or sheela-na-gig, which came from the Irish Sile na gcioch, which is literally translated “Sheila of the breasts.” The phrase refers to figurative carvings of naked women with exaggerated vulvae, and one theory proposed, according to etymonline.com, that they are “meant as an apotropaic gesture to ward off the devil.” Of course, now you know that adding “…to ward off the devil” is redundant. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!