Faith & RitualGreek → English
Archbishop
/ˌɑːrtʃˈbɪʃəp/noun
A bishop with authority over the other bishops of a province.
The Greek roots
ἀρχι-
arkhi-
chief, first
ἐπίσκοπος
epískopos
overseer
Literally: “chief overseer”
The story of the word
Both halves are Greek, and the word was already in Old English as arcebiscop, borrowed long before the Normans arrived. Ἐπίσκοπος was a secular job in classical Greek, a municipal inspector sent to check on a colony, before the church took it over. English kept the Greek prefix whole but let the noun lose its front end, ἐπι- eroding to bishop, which is why the compound looks like a hybrid and is not.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Late Latin → Old English
- First recorded
- Old English
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
bishopepiscopalarchangelscope
In a sentence
The Archbishop of Canterbury crowns the monarch, a job the office has held for a thousand years.