Crossword clues for pontifex
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Pontifex \Pon"ti*fex\, n.; pl. Pontifices. [L.] A high priest; a pontiff.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
member of the supreme college of priests in ancient Rome, 1570s, from Latin pontifex "high priest, chief of the priests," probably from pont-, stem of pons "bridge" (see pons) + -fex, -ficis, root of facere "make" (see factitious). If so, the word originally meant "bridge-maker," or "path-maker."\n
\nWeekley points out that, "bridge-building has always been regarded as a pious work of divine inspiration." Or the term may be metaphoric of bridging the earthly world and the realm of the gods. Other suggestions trace it to Oscan-Umbrian puntis "propitiary offering," or to a lost Etruscan word, in either case altered by folk etymology to resemble the Latin for "bridge-maker." In Old English, pontifex is glossed in the Durham Ritual (Old Northumbrian dialect) as brycgwyrcende "bridge-maker."
WordNet
n. a member of the highest council of priests in ancient Rome
[also: pontifices (pl)]
Wikipedia
PONTIFEX (Planning Of Non-specific Transportation by an Intelligent Fleet EXpert) was a mid-1980s project that introduced a novel approach to complex aircraft fleet scheduling, partially funded by the European Commission's Strategic Programme for R&D in Information Technology.
Since the mathematical problems stemming from nontrivial fleet scheduling easily become computationally unsolvable, the PONTIFEX idea consisted in a seamless merge of algorithms and heuristic knowledge embedded in rules. The system, based on domain knowledge collected from airliners Alitalia, KLM, Swissair, and TAP Portugal, was first adopted by Swissair and Alitalia in the late 1980s, then also by the Italian railroad national operator, for their cargo division. It is still in use today (2008).
A pontifex was an official in a Roman priesthood of the pre-Christian era, headed by the Pontifex Maximus, and now one of the titles of the Pope.
For people bearing the modern surname Pontifex, see Pontifex (surname).
Pontifex may also refer to:
- Pontifex (project), the Planning Of Non-specific Transportation by an Intelligent Fleet EXpert European project
- Quintus Mucius Scaevola Pontifex (died 82 BC), politician of the Roman Republic
- Romanus Pontifex, papal bull of 1455, granting nations and explorers rights over newly discovered lands
- Pontifex, codename for the Solitaire encryption algorithm in the 1999 novel Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
- Pontifex, computer game in the Bridge Builder series
- Valentine Pontifex, 1983 novel by Robert Silverberg
- Pontifex (genus), a group of amoeboid organisms
Pontifex is used in modern times as a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
- Alfred Pontifex (1842–1930), English cricketer
- Charles Pontifex (1831–1912), English cricketer and lawyer who was knighted
- Dudley Pontifex (1855–1934), English cricketer, all-round sportsman and lawyer
- John Pontifex (cricketer, born 1771) (1771–1841), English cricketer
- John Pontifex (cricketer, born 1796) (1796–1875), English cricketer and father of Charles Pontifex
- Kyle Pontifex (born 1980), New Zealand field hockey player
- Max Pontifex, Australian rules footballer
- Sydney Pontifex (1803–1874), English cricketer
In literature, the fictional (but semi-autobiographical) Pontifex family are the central characters in The Way of All Flesh, the 1903 novel by Samuel Butler.
Usage examples of "pontifex".
Through the absurd extravagances of poets and augurs, and through the growth of critical thought, this unbelief went on increasing from the days of Anaxagoras, when it was death to call the sun a ball of fire, to the days of Catiline, when Julius Casar could be chosen Pontifex Maximus, almost before the Senate had ceased to reverberate his voice openly asserting that death was the utter end of man.
I closed my eyes and for an instant, half asleep, glimpsed rising before me the outline of Pontifex Hall framed in its monumental arch, the inscribed keystone above cast in shadow and maculated with moss and lichen, the words barely visible beneath.
Cornelius Merula, the censor Publius Licinius Crassus, the banker and merchant Titus Pomponius, the banker Gaius Oppius, Quintus Mucius Scaevola Pontifex Maximus, and Marcus Antonius Orator, just returned to the Senate after a protracted illness.
Pontifex Tyeveras, many high posts have been left unfilled in recent years, my lord, and therefore a certain slowing of Pontifical functions has developed.
How would they react, she wondered, if they knew that their father might suddenly be much closer than ever before to becoming Pontifex, and that they could all find themselves uprooted from their good life at the Castle and forced to move along to the grim subterranean Labyrinth, the Pontifical seat far to the south, before long?
But it was a decision made by the College of Pontifices, and if the members were not kept up to the mark by a conscientious Pontifex Maximus, the calendar fell by the wayside, as it did now.
College of Pontifices took its duties seriously, and intercalated an extra twenty days every two years, after the month of February.
It took control of membership in the priestly colleges of pontifices and augurs away from the incumbent members, who had traditionally co-opted new members.
Magnus, whereas it gives Caesar a chance he could never have had when the College of Pontifices chose its own Pontifex Maximus.
He had left the most important interview until last, deeming it better to establish his authority within the College of Pontifices before he saw the Vestal Virgins.
Generations of wealthy Pontifices Maximi had poured money and care into it, even knowing that whatever portable they gave, from chryselephantine tables to inlaid Egyptian couches, could not later be removed for the benefit of family heirs.
I imagine one of the Pontifices Maximi of that era deciphered the originals and made these copies.
I question the legality of anything beyond what has already been donea pronouncement by the College of Pontifices that Publius Clodius did commit sacrilege.
It specified that new pontifices and augurs must be elected by a tribal Assembly comprising seventeen of the thirty-five tribes chosen by lot.
Until this law, pontifices and augurs were co-opted by the College members.