In all the news surrounding the death of Pope John Paul II, I learned a new word, papabile. According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papabile)

Papabile (plural: Papabili) is an unofficial Italian term first coined by Vaticanologists and now used internationally in many languages to describe cardinals of whom it is thought likely or possible that they will be elected pope. A convenient English translation would be 'popeable'.

Among the papabile cardinals who were elected pope are Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli (Pius XII) and Giovanni Cardinal Montini (Paul VI). Being seen as papabile, however, is no guarantee of election, and is sometimes seen as a handicap. Giuseppe Cardinal Siri was widely expected to be elected pope in the 1958 conclave. Instead Angelo Cardinal Roncalli, an utterly unexpected choice, was elected and became Pope John XXIII. Similarly Giovanni Cardinal Benelli was widely expected to be elected pope in both the August and October 1978 conclaves. In fact he was defeated in both (narrowly the second time). In August, another candidate few saw as papabile, Albino Cardinal Luciani was elected and became Pope John Paul I. This has led to a wry saying among Vaticanologists, "He who enters the conclave as pope, leaves it as a cardinal."

As the cardinals age, the "list" of papabili changes as well. For instance Carlo Cardinal Martini was thought to be papabile a few years ago, but now he has given up his see (Milan) upon reaching 75 years of age. As a result, few cite him as papabile today. A few years ago, Pope John Paul II joked about the papabili, "The man who will succeed me as pope hasn't yet been made a cardinal."

English translation would be 'popeable'

As a lifelong Catholic who remembers the last two papal elections, I'm familiar with the term, but I've always thought of it as a noun, ie, a term that refers to that group of popes-in-waiting, not an adjective. Perhaps it's both. Will be interested to see how it's used during these days preceding the conclave.

"Pontiff" is itself an interesting word, from the Latin for "bridge." Probably not a new one to the AWAD crowd but interesting anyway.

I do have a question: are the Catholic cardinals named after the bird cardinal, or are the birds named after the clergymen, or neither? My dictionary gives one definition of the word as "a deep red color." Maybe the color came first?

According to wilipedia:

In the Roman Catholic Church, a cardinal is a dignitary of the second-highest rank, inferior only to the Pope. The term cardinal derives from the Latin cardo, or door-hinge.

Was the color named for the red of their robes?

i am pretty certain the color of a cardinal robe is crimsom..
and the bird is named for the color of the robes.. and there really isn't a cardinal red--but RED birds called cardinals.

crimson like scarlet, and a whole bunch of other red words are facinating--at least they are to me.. i once posted everyday on another red work (crimson, scarlet, cinabar, cerilian, etc.. ) and while the post were read.. no one seemed much interested.. it's an old thread (more than 3 closer to 4 years ago now.)

well, there was more responces than i remembered.. and Dr bill pointed out-he found the thread of interest..so

if you want to read about red..
http://wordsmith.org/board/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=miscellany&Number=105264
here is a link.

www.m-w.com lists some interesting definitions for cardinal, including one which says that the bird is named after the ecclesiastical figure due to the color. My old dictionary at home lists as a definition the deep red color itself.

1 : a high ecclesiastical official of the Roman Catholic Church who ranks next below the pope and is appointed by him to assist him as a member of the college of cardinals
2 : CARDINAL NUMBER -- usually used in plural
3 : a woman's short hooded cloak orig. of scarlet cloth
4 [from its color, resembling that of the cardinal's robes] : a crested finch (Cardinalis cardinalis) of the eastern U.S. and adjacent Canada, the southwestern U.S., and Mexico to Belize which has a black face and heavy red bill in both sexes and is nearly completely red in the male


On a semi-related topic, I remain perplexed by the name of Stanford University's mascot, which is simply The Cardinal, in the singular, rather than the plural Cardinals of, say, the University of Louisville.

perplexed by the name of Stanford University's mascot

From the Stanford web site:

"Cardinal has been the color of Stanford athletic teams since 1892 and was adopted in 1972 as the official name for Stanford sports."

Same as Cornell and (?)Nebraska(?) Big Red.

That's interesting about Cornell, but I thought Nebraska were the Cornhuskers. Alabama of course is the Crimson Tide. What I meant about Stanford is that it is sort of linguistically awkward to be simply "the Cardinal."

"linguistically awkward"

"The cardinal," like "the eagle," "the giraffe," or "the hippo."

Wow! What sports teams are those?!

let's see:

The eagles participate in swoopstakes, giraffe are into basketball, and hippos are sumo wrestlers.

It ain't the Bird, folks.

Cardinal has been the color of Stanford athletic teams since 1892 and was adopted in 1972 as the official name for Stanford sports. www.stanford.edu

Exactly, it isn't the bird. It's just "The Cardinal." (I wonder if they have an arch-rival that is "The Ordinal"?) Then again, it is very similar to Harvard ("The Harvard Crimson"), and I guess it could be referring to "those who are cardinal in color" the same way that "the annointed" would refer to an implied group who were annointed.

Looking over a list of college sports nicknames at http://www.smargon.net/nicknames/ I see that many colleges in fact are simply named after a color. A sampling:

Blue --- Wellesley College (Wellesley, Massachusetts)
Big Blue --- Millikin University (Decatur, Illinois)
Big Blues --- Bluefield State College (Bluefield, West Virginia)
Big Green --- Dartmouth College (Hanover, New Hampshire)
Big Red --- Cornell University (Ithaca, New York) and Denison University (Granville, Ohio)
Blues --- Mississippi University for Women (Columbus, Mississippi)
Crimson --- Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
Crimson Storm --- Southern Nazarene University (Bethany, Oklahoma) (changed in August 1998 from Redskins)
Crimson Tide --- University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa, Alabama)
Crimson Wave --- Calumet College of St. Joseph (Whiting, Indiana)

However, far more entertaining names are to be found away from colors:

Hustlin' Quakers --- Earlham College (Richmond, Indiana)
Ichabods --- Washburn University (Topeka, Kansas) (men's team)
Medics --- Thomas Jefferson University (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Swordsmen --- Life Bible College-East (Christiansburg, Virginia)
Women of Troy --- University of Southern California (Los Angeles, California) (women's team)
Wonder Boys --- Arkansas Tech University (Russellville, Arkansas) (men's team)
Hatters --- Stetson University (Deland, Florida)
Black Flies --- College of the Atlantic (Bar Harbor, Maine)

The game of the year is always when the (Geneva, NY) Hobart Statesmen play the (Lancaster, PA) Franklin and Marshall College Diplomats.

"It ain't the bird"

My, that is awkward!

(shows you how much I follow sports (beyond my lane mate at the swimming pool))

Oh my. I just hope they do not have a series of spring formal dances every year.

Yes, they would be known as the Big Blue balls.

If Life Bible College-East played Univ of So.California in basketball, and the latter team had excellent defense, would you say that the Swordsmen were enveloped by Trojans? Or if Life Bible College-East won the game, would you say the Swordsmen ripped through the Trojans?

Put me out of my misery, Alex: What's this got to do with digesting fats? I'm assuming there's an anatomical word similar to papabile?

Bile..?


http://cat007.com/stones.htm

Ah, just in time for the word of the day...papabile --> papal bile. There, isn't it so much funnier after it's been explicated?

I guess I was looking for something more complicated. [/whistling]

And yes, how appropriate Anu's theme this week. I liked his commentary too.