LJ, found this etymology intriguing. More rabbit holes. 17 mentioned bridge 15-20 times in drops. Even outright named a couple of bridges in posts as I recall. Weirdorama below mentions word Durham. _________________________________________________________
https://www.etymonline.com
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Pontifex -
glossed in the Durham Ritual (Old Northumbrian dialect) as brycgwyrcende “bridge-maker.”
pontifex (n.)
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 “maker,” from facere “to do, make” (from PIE root *dhe- “to set, put”).
If so, the word originally meant “bridge-maker,” or “path-maker.” It was felt as such; the sense of “bridge-builder” was in the Medieval Latin word, and Milton uses pontifical (adj.) in this sense. Sense was extended in Church Latin to “a bishop,” in Medieval Latin to “the Pope.” In Old English, pontifex is glossed in the Durham Ritual (Old Northumbrian dialect) as brycgwyrcende “bridge-maker.”
Weekley points out that, “bridge-building has always been regarded as a pious work of divine inspiration.” Century Dictionary speculates it had its origins as “having charge of the making or maintenance of a bridge — it is said of the Sublician bridge built over the Tiber by Ancus Marcius.” 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 it would have been altered by folk etymology to resemble the Latin for “bridge-maker.”
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pons (n.)
“bridge,” in anatomy and in various Latin expressions, from Latin pons “bridge, connecting gallery, walkway,” earlier probably “way, passage,” from PIE root *pent- “to go, tread” (see find (v.)). Especially pons asinorum “bridge of asses,” nickname since early 16c. for the fifth proposition of the first book of Euclid, which students and slow wits find difficulty in “getting over”: if two sides of a triangle are equal, the angles opposite these sides also are equal. “The original allusion seems to have been to the difficulty of getting asses to cross a bridge” [Century Dictionary]. The Latin word is the source of Italian ponte, French pont, Spanish puente.
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bridge (n.1)
“any structure that affords passage over a ravine or river,” Old English brycge, from Proto-Germanic *brugjo (source also of Old Saxon bruggia, Old Norse bryggja, Old Frisian brigge, Dutch brug, Old High German brucca, German Brücke), from PIE root *bhru “log, beam,” hence “wooden causeway” (source also of Gaulish briva “bridge,” Old Church Slavonic bruvuno “beam,” Serbian brv “footbridge”).
The original notion is of a beam or log. Compare Old Church Slavonic mostu, Serbo-Croatian most “bridge,” probably originally “beam” and a loanword from Germanic, related to English mast (n.1). For vowel evolution, see bury. Meaning “bony upper part of the nose” is from early 15c.; of stringed instruments from late 14c. The bridge of a ship (by 1843) originally was a “narrow raised platform athwart the ship whence the Captain issues his orders” [Sir Geoffrey Callender, “Sea Passages”].
Bridge in steam-vessels is the connection between the paddle-boxes, from which the officer in charge directs the motion of the vessel. [Smyth, “The Sailor’s Word-book,” 1867]
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gloss (n.1)
“glistening smoothness, luster,” 1530s, probably from Scandinavian (compare Icelandic glossi “a spark, a flame,” related to glossa “to flame”), or obsolete Dutch gloos “a glowing,” from Middle High German glos; probably ultimately from the same source as English glow (v.). Superficial lustrous smoothness due to the nature of the material (unlike polish, which is artificial).
gloss (n.2)
“word inserted as an explanation, translation, or definition,” c. 1300, glose (modern form from 1540s; earlier also gloze), from Late Latin glossa “obsolete or foreign word,” one that requires explanation; later extended to the explanation itself, from Greek glōssa (Ionic), glōtta (Attic) “language, a tongue; word of mouth, hearsay,” also “obscure or foreign word, language,” also “mouthpiece,” literally “the tongue” (as the organ of speech), from PIE *glogh- “thorn, point, that which is projected” (source also of Old Church Slavonic glogu “thorn,” Greek glokhis “barb of an arrow”).
Glosses were common in the Middle Ages, usually rendering Hebrew, Greek, or Latin words into vernacular Germanic, Celtic, or Romanic. Originally written between the lines, later in the margins. By early 14c. in a bad sense, “deceitful explanation, commentary that disguises or shifts meaning.” This sense probably has been colored by gloss (n.1). Both glossology (1716) and glottology (1841) have been used in the sense “science of language.”
gloss (v.)
c. 1300, glosen “use fair words; speak smoothly, cajole, flatter;” late 14c. as “comment on (a text), insert a word as an explanation, interpret,” from Medieval Latin glossare and Old French gloser, from Late Latin glossa (see gloss (n.2)). Modern spelling from 16c.; formerly also gloze.
The other verb, meaning “to add luster, make smooth and shining,” is from 1650s, from gloss (n.1). Figurative sense of “smooth over, hide” is from 1729, mostly from the first verb, in its extended sense of “explain away, veil or shift the meaning of,” but showing influence of the second. Related: Glossed; glossing.
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Durham
c. 1000, Dunholm “city on a hill,” a merger of Old English dun “hill” (see down (n.2)) and Scandinavian holmr (see holm). The change from -n- to -r- is a result of Norman confusion (see Shrewsbury). As a breed of short-horned cattle, by 1810, so called from being bred there
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ritual (adj.)
1560s, from French ritual or directly from Latin ritualis “relating to (religious) rites,” from ritus “religious observance or ceremony, custom, usage,” perhaps from PIE root *re- “to reason, count.” Related: Ritually
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Bonus word found on the Ritual page
(in honor of the current Mask wearing edict)
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mummery (n.)
1520s, “a show or performance of mumming,” from Old French mommerie, from momer “to mask oneself” (see mummer). Transferred sense of “ridiculous ceremony or ritual” is from 1540s
mummer (n.)
“one who performs in a mumming, actor in a dumb show,” early 15c., probably a fusion of Old French momeur “mummer” (from Old French momer “mask oneself,” from momon “mask”) and Middle English mommen “to mutter, be silent,” which is the source of mum (interjection). “[S]pecifically, in England, one of a company of persons who go from house to house at Christmas performing a kind of play, the subject being generally St. George and the Dragon, with sundry whimsical adjuncts” [Century Dictionary]
Thank you!