episcopus

Latin

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ἐπίσκοπος (epískopos, “overseer”), from ἐπί (epí, “over”) + σκοπός (skopós, “watcher, lookout, guardian”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /eˈpis.ko.pus/, [ɛˈpɪs̠kɔpʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /eˈpis.ko.pus/, [eˈpiskopus]

Noun

episcopus m (genitive episcopī); second declension

1. (Late Latin) an overseer, supervisor, bishop in a Christian church who governs a diocese

Declension

Second-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	episcopus	episcopī
Genitive	episcopī	episcopōrum
Dative	episcopō	episcopīs
Accusative	episcopum	episcopōs
Ablative	episcopō	episcopīs
Vocative	episcope	episcopī

Derived terms

• archepiscopālis / archiepiscopālis
• archepiscopus / archiepiscopus
• episcopālis

Descendants

• Eastern Romance:
  • Romanian: piscup
• Franco-Provençal: èvèque
• Gallo-Italic:
  • Piedmontese: vëscu
• Italo-Dalmatian:
  • Dalmatian: pascu
  • Italian: vescovo
  • Sicilian: vìscuvu
• Old French: evesque
  • Middle French: evesque
    • French: évêque
      • Haitian Creole: evèk
      • → Khmer: អេវ៉េគ (ʼeeveek)
      • → Malagasy: eveka
  • → Old Occitan: evesque, avesque, vesque
    • Occitan: avesque
• Old Occitan: bisbe
  • Catalan: bisbe
• Rhaeto-Romance:
  • Friulian: vescul
  • Romansch: uvestg
• Sardinian: obíscu
• Venetian: vescovo, vesco
• West Iberian:
  • Old Leonese:
    • Asturian: obispu
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: bispo
    • Galician: bispo
    • Portuguese: bispo
  • Old Spanish:
    • Spanish: obispo (see there for further descendants)
• → Albanian: ipeshkv, peshkop, upeshk
• → Celtic borrowings
  • Middle Breton: escob
    • Breton: eskob
  • Cornish: epskop
  • Welsh: esgob
  • Old Irish: epscop (see there for further descendants)
• → Germanic borrowings
  • Old Dutch: biskop
    • Middle Dutch: bischop
      • Dutch: bisschop (see there for further descendants)
  • Old English: bisċop (via British Latin *biscopo) (see there for further descendants)
  • Old Frisian: biskop
    • Saterland Frisian: Biskop
    • West Frisian: biskop
  • Old High German: biscof (see there for further descendants)
  • Old Swedish: bisp
    • → Finnish: piispa
• → Italian: episcopo
• → Old Church Slavonic: бискоупъ (biskupŭ) (see there for further descendants)
• → Portuguese: epíscopo
• → unsorted borrowings
  • Estonian: piiskop
  • Hungarian: püspök (via Germanic or Slavic)
  • Latvian: bīskaps
  • Lithuanian: vyskupas
  • Old Prussian: bīskups
  • Samoan: 'epikopō
  • Slovene: škof
  • Yiddish: ביסקופּ (biskup)

Further reading

• “episcopus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• episcopus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• episcopus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.