Cardinals

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A group of high-ranking ecclesiastical officials in the Roman Catholic Church who advise the Pope and oversee various church functions
2. Members of the clergy, typically distinguished by their red attire, who play a significant role in church governance and decisions
3. The title given to senior leaders within a religious hierarchy who often participate in the election of a new pope and guide church policies

Etymology: The word's core image is a door. Latin "cardo" meant "hinge," the pivot a door swings on, and the adjective "cardinalis" came to mean whatever something turns or depends upon: principal, chief, fundamental. Ancient usage already leaned this way, so the noun for a senior churchman is an extension of a sense that was about structure long before it was about rank. The ecclesiastical sense developed in the Church, where a cardinal was one of the clergy considered essential to a church's running, the central figures on whom the rest depended. The word passed into English through Middle French "cardinal," so its path into the language ran through French rather than directly from Latin. Its sense of a deep red bird and a flower share the same colour-based naming, but that is a separate, later application of the adjective's meaning and not part of the church title's story. The title itself stays rooted in the image of a hinge on which everything else turns.

Synonyms: chiefs, principals, leaders

Antonyms: subordinates, followers