Primate

Primate (pronounced prahy-meyt or prahy-mit)

(1) In the ecclesiastical hierarchy, an archbishop or bishop ranking first among the bishops of a province or country (in this context usually pronounced prahy-mit). Primate is a title or rank bestowed on some archbishops in some Christian churches and can, depending on tradition, denote either jurisdictional authority or mere ceremonial precedence.

(2) In zoology, any of various omnivorous mammals of the order primates (including simians and prosimians), comprising the three suborders anthropoidea (humans, great apes, gibbons, Old World monkeys, and New World monkeys), prosimii (lemurs, loris, and their allies), and tarsioidea (tarsiers), especially distinguished by the use of hands, varied locomotion, and by complex flexible behavior involving a high level of social interaction and cultural adaptability: a large group of baboons is called a congress which, to some, makes perfect sense.

(3) A chief or leader (archaic).

1175-1225: In the sense of "high bishop, preeminent ecclesiastical official of a province" having a certain jurisdiction, as vicar of the pope, over other bishops in his province, primate is from the Middle English primate & primat, from the Old French primat and directly from the Medieval Latin primatem (church primate), a noun use of the Late Latin adjective primas (of the first rank, chief, principal) from primus (first).  The meaning "animal of the biological order including monkeys and humans" is attested from 1876, from the Modern Latin Primates, the order name (linnæus), the plural of the Latin primas; so called for being regarded as the "highest" order of mammals (the category originally included bats, representing the state of thought in biology at the time).

As an adjective, prime dates from the late fourteenth century in the sense of "first, original, first in order of time" from the Old French prime and directly from the Latin primus (first, the first, first part (figuratively "chief, principal; excellent, distinguished, noble") from the Proto-Italic prismos & priisemos, superlative of the primitive Indo-European preis- (before), from the root per (beyond; before; forward), hence the sense "in front of, before, first, chief".  It was the source also of the Italian and Spanish primo and thus a doublet of primo.  The meaning "of fine quality; of the first excellence" is from circa 1400.  The meaning "first in rank, degree, or importance" was first noted in English circa 1610 whereas in mathematics (as in prime number), it wasn’t in the literature until the 1560s.  The prime meridian (the meridian of the earth from which longitude is measured, that of Greenwich, England) was established in 1878.  Prime time which originally was used to describe "spring time" is attested from circa 1500.  The use in broadcasting in the sense of a "peak tuning-in period" dates from 1961.

Some endangered primates.

As a noun prime referred to the "earliest canonical hour of the day" (6 am), from the Old English prim and the Old French prime or directly from the Medieval Latin prima "the first service" from the Latin prima hora (the first hour (of the Roman day)), from the Latin primus ("first, the first, first part").  In classical Latin, the noun uses of the adjective meant "first part, beginning; leading place".  The noun sense "apostrophe-like symbol" exists because the symbol ′ was originally a superscript Roman numeral one.  By extension, "the first division of the day" (6-9 am) was an early-thirteenth century form whereas the sense of "beginning of a period or course of events" is from the late fourteenth.  From the notion of "the period or condition of greatest vigor in life" there came by the 1530s the specific sense "springtime of human life" (taken usually to mean the ages around 21-28 (the division of live in seven-year chunks a noted motif in English) is from the 1590s and at about the same time, prime came to mean "that which is best in quality, highest or most perfect state of anything".

The use as a verb dates from the 1510s, an invention by the military to describe the process (fill, charge, load) required before a musket or other flintlock weapon could be discharged, the assumption being this was derive from the adjective.  From this by circa 1600 evolved the general sense of "perform the first operation on, prepare something for its intended purpose” (applied especially to wood to make ready for painting)".  To prime a pump is noted from 1769 and meant to pour water down the tube to saturate the sucking mechanism which made it draw up water more readily.  This was later adopted in public finance and economics to describe what is now usually called fiscal stimulus (the idea being a little government money attracting more private investment.  The suffix -ate was a word-forming element used in forming nouns from Latin words ending in -ātus, -āta, & -ātum (such as estate, primate & senate).  Those that came to English via French often began with -at, but an -e was added in the fifteenth century or later to indicate the long vowel.  It can also mark adjectives formed from Latin perfect passive participle suffixes of first conjugation verbs -ātus, -āta, & -ātum (such as desolate, moderate & separate).  Again, often they were adopted in Middle English with an –at suffix, the -e appended after circa 1400; a doublet of –ee.

Lindsay Lohan and a large primate, King Kong premiere, Loews E-Walk and AMC Empire 25 Theaters, New York City, December 2005.

The Roman Catholic Church

In the Roman Catholic Church, a Primate is almost always an Archbishop though the title is occasionally bestowed on the (Metropolitan) bishop of an Episcopal see who has precedence over the bishoprics of one or more ecclesiastical provinces of a particular historical, political or cultural area.  Also sometimes created are primates where the title is entirely honorific, granting only precedence in on ceremonial occasions and, in the case of the Polish Primates, the privilege of wearing cardinal's crimson robes (though not the skullcap and biretta).  The Vatican likes the old ways and many primates are vested not in the capitals of countries but in those places which were the centres of the country when first Christianized.  For that reason there still exists the Primate of the Visigothic Kingdom, and the Primate of the Gauls.

Some of the leadership functions once exercised by Primates have now either devolved to presidents of conferences of bishops or to Rome itself.  Modern communications as much as reform of canon law have influenced these developments and most changes were effected between the publication of the Code of Canon Law in 1917 and the late twentieth-century implementation of Vatican II’s more arcane administrative arrangements.  Rome has never seemed quite sure how to deal with England.  Unlike in the secular US, where the Holy See’s grant of precedence to the Archbishop of Baltimore dates from 1848, the Archbishop of Westminster has not been granted the title of Primate of England and Wales but is instead described as that of Chief Metropolitan.  Rome has never exactly defined the implications of that though it has been suggested the position is “…similar to that of the Archbishop of Canterbury.”  Most helpful.

If the position in England remains vague, that of some of the orders is opaque.  The loose structures of the Benedictine Confederation made Pope Leo XIII (1810–1903; pope 1878-1903) exclaim that the Benedictines were ordo sine ordine (an order without order), something about which he subsequently did little.  The Benedictine Abbot Primate resides at Sant'Anselmo in Rome and takes precedence of all other abbots and is granted authority over all matters of discipline, to settle difficulties arising between monasteries, to hold a canonical visitation, exercise a general supervision for the regular observance of monastic discipline.  However, his Primatial powers permit him to act only by virtue of the proper law of the autonomous Benedictine congregations, most of which does not exist.  Charmingly, the Benedictine Order appears still to operate as it’s done for the last few centuries, untroubled by tiresome letters from Rome although other orders have embraced modern ways.  The Confederation of Canons Regular of St Augustine democratically elects an Abbot Primate, though his role, save for prerogative reserve powers, is ceremonial.

The Church of England

Some endangered Primates at the Lambeth Conference, London, 1930.  The once almost exclusively white, male and middle class world of Anglican bishops has in recent decades become increasingly black, evangelical and even female.  It seems likely it may also become increasingly gay.  Although rarely spoken of, it's an open secret the Anglican church in England depends for its operation on its many gay clergy and it may be it will require only the natural processes of generational change for gay bishops to become an accepted thing.  Before that, a state of tolerance or peaceful co-existence may be next step.

Anglican usage styles the bishop who heads an independent church as its primate, though they always hold some other title (archbishop, bishop, or moderator).  In Anglicanism, a primate’s authority is not universally defined; some are executives while others can do little more than preside over conferences or councils and represent the church ceremonially.  However, the when the Anglicans convene a Primates' Meeting, the chief bishop of each of the thirty-eight churches that compose the Anglican Communion acts as its primate, though they may not be that within their own church.  For example, the various United Churches of the sub-continent are represented at the meetings by their moderators though they become primates for the purposes of Anglican conferences.  Primates are thus created for photo-opportunities.

Winds of change: Primates at the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), Jerusalem, 2018.

In both the Churches of England and Ireland, two bishops have the title of primate: the archbishops of Canterbury and York in England and of Armagh and Dublin in Ireland.  The Archbishop of Canterbury, considered primus inter pares (first among equals) of all the participants, convenes meetings and issues invitations.  The title of primate in the Church of England has no direct relationship with the ex-officio right of twenty-six bishops to sit in the House of Lords; were the church to do away with the title, it would not at all affect the constitutional position.

The Orthodox Church

In the Orthodox Church, a primate is the presiding bishop of an ecclesiastical jurisdiction or region.  Usually, the expression primate refers to the first hierarch of an autocephalous or autonomous Orthodox Church although, less often, it’s used to refer to the ruling bishop of an archdiocese or diocese.  In the first hierarch, the primate is the first among equals of all his brother bishops of the jurisdiction or diocese of which he is first, or primary, hierarch, and he is usually elected by the Holy Synod in which he will serve.  All bishops are equal sacramentally, but the most important administrative tasks are undertaken by the bishop of the most honored diocese.  The primate of an autocephalous church supervises the internal and external welfare of that church and represents it in its relations with other autocephalous Orthodox churches, religious organizations, and secular authorities.  During liturgical services, his name will be mentioned by the other bishops of the autocephalous church and the primate mentions the names of the other heads of autocephalous Orthodox churches at Divine services.

The liturgical duties vary between jurisdictions but, normally, the hierarch is responsible for such tasks as the consecration and distribution of the Holy Chrism and providing the diocesan bishops with the holy relics necessary for the consecration of church altars and holy antimins.  To this may extend other administrative duties including convening and presiding over the meetings of the Holy Synods and other councils, receiving petitions for admission of clergy from other Orthodox churches, initiating the action to fill vacancies in the office of diocesan bishops, and issuing pastoral letters addressed to the bishops, clergy, and laity of the Church.  He will also advise his brother bishops, and when required, submits their cases to the Holy Synod. He has the honor of pastoral initiative and guidance, and, when necessary, the right of pastoral intervention, in all matters concerning the life of the Church within the structure of the holy canons.

Clergy

Clergy (pronounced klur-jee)

The group or body of ordained persons in a religion, as distinguished from the laity (the non-ordained); applied especially within Christendom.

1175–1225: From the Middle English clerge & clergie from the Old French clergé (learned men) from the Late Latin clericātus (office of a priest) from clericalis & clēricus (one ordained for religious services), from the Ancient Greek κληρικός (klērikós) (of the clergy).  It’s from the Old French clergie (from clerc) in the sense of “learned men, skilled in the arts of erudition, writing and transcription” that the modern English clerk evolved, the meaning "pertaining to clerks and copyists" dating from 1798.  Clericalism sacerdotalism (power or influence of the clergy) is from 1849, very much in the spirit of the European revolutions of 1848; clericality (quality of being clerical) is from the 1650s.  Clergy, clergyman, clergywoman and (the very modern) clergy person are nouns and the adjectives adjectives clergylike, anticlergy and proclergy (all sometimes hyphenated) were in well-known during the centuries when church and secular forces contested control of British and European; the noun plural is clergies.

The legal doctrine benefit of clergy was formalised first in the 1510s and was the exemption of ecclesiastics from certain criminal processes before secular judges although in England it had been first recognized in 1274; over time it was gradually restricted being abolished finally in 1827.  Special deals for English clergy were nothing new.  The Rosetta Stone, the granodiorite stele created in Egypt in 196 BC and re-discovered in 1799 (which became the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs) included a degree granting tax-breaks to clergy, rights which in various jurisdictions persist to this day.

Clergyman was a familiar term from the thirteenth century but the more rare clergywoman was unknown until the 1670s and then just as a general descriptor of nuns.  It wasn’t until 1871 it could refer to a "woman pastor, woman of the clerical profession" but in between, it was used humorously (and disparagingly) about the domineering wife of a clergyman, an idea Anthony Trollope (1815-1882) used to great comic effect when writing of the bishop’s wife in the Chronicles of Barsetshire (1855-1867).  Clergess (member of a female religious order) was attested from the late fourteenth century; clergy-feme (clergyman's wife or woman) was first noted in the 1580s.

Church of England (and worldwide Anglican) clergy

A clergyman.  Cosmo Gordon Lang (1864–1945), Archbishop of Canterbury (1928–1942).

In the Anglican Church, there are in excess of two-dozen titles before one even reaches then levels of the right reverend and very reverend gentlemen but despite the extraordinary proliferation of styles and titles within the Anglican clergy, under canon law, there are but three types of ordained person: a bishop, a priest, and a deacon.  With very few exceptions, the people who hold other offices and titles will always be (1) a bishop, (2) a priest or (3) a deacon, with their other title(s) overlaid atop their primary appointment.  There doesn't seem to be any theological justification for all this ecclesiastical bureaucratization but as those who study organizational behavior have often noted, structures once established can quickly become established tradition and assume their own inertia.

Bishop

A member of the clergy who has been commissioned to oversee the work of a group of congregations and the priests & Deacons who serve them; that group of congregations is called a diocese.  Only a bishop may ordain persons to the order of deacon and priest; only a bishop may also ordain (also called a consecration) another bishop, but must do so in the company of other bishops and a bishop must have been previously have been ordained a priest.  In the Church of England, twenty-six bishops (The Lords Spiritual) sit by historic right in the House of Lords, the UK parliament’s upper house.

Priest

A member of the clergy who has been commissioned to preside at gatherings around the Lord’s Table (the Holy Communion) and to extend assurance of God’s forgiveness to those who truly repent of their sins.  A person who is a priest must previously have been ordained as a deacon, and continues to be a deacon throughout his or her life as a priest.  A few churches now use presbyter for this order.

Feminist Lindsay Lohan in habit with Smith & Wesson .500 Magnum in Machete (2010), makes a persuasive case for the ordination of women in the Roman Catholic Church.  In the Anglican communion, there are now even women bishops although some reactionary dioceses such as Sydney restrict women to the diaconate (ie deacons) where they may assist "real" priests although their exact role can vary between parishes.  The Sydney diocese, where there's still a hankering for popery, refuses to ordain women as priests and bishops.

Deacon

A member of the clergy who has been commissioned to proclaim the Gospel, assist at the Holy Communion, and to call the church, by word and example, to its ministry of service and healing.

Archbishop

A bishop who presides over several dioceses in a large region, a position which includes some supervisory responsibilities over both dioceses and bishops in that region.  In the Church of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury is the (nominal and spiritual) head of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Archdeacon

A member of the clergy appointed to assist the bishop in certain administrative and pastoral duties in a diocese.  An archdeacon may administer a district comprising a group of parishes which is usually known as an Archdeaconry.  Despite the name, there is now no direct connection with the order of deacon, and an archdeacon is generally one of the priests of a diocese.  The position and title normally expires upon resignation or retirement, although certain retired archdeacons in good standing with their bishop often retain the title.

Aspirant

A person who has indicated to the bishop that he or she hopes to be ordained and is in the preliminary interview process.  Once the bishop has formally accepted their candidacy, the person is called a postulant.

Bishop-elect

A person chosen to become a bishop, but not yet consecrated; the word elect simply means chosen.  Anglican bishops are selected by a variety of means: some are elected by the clergy and laity of the diocese where they will serve, but some are selected by a specially-constituted committee (often called an Electoral College).  In England, historically, bishops were personal appointments by the monarch; now the sovereign appoints on the recommendation of the prime minister.  This process has not been without the odd hiccup.  Once, Lord Salisbury (1903; UK prime minister for thirteen years variously 1885-1902), as was the usual practice, received from the Archbishop of Canterbury the name of the two clergymen he had considered for appointment to a vacant bishopric.  Unfortunately, the spellings of the two names were similar and the prime-minister inadvertently sent to the palace the wrong name.  After the gentleman was enthroned he was informed of the error and remarked: "Oh, I daresay he will do just as well".     

Canon

Canon is an honorary title conferred upon a member of the clergy (and some lay persons) for faithful and valuable service to the church.  The standard joke in church circles is it's hard to find men of sufficient calibre to fulfil the role and once appointed, they should never be fired.

Chaplain

A member of the clergy whose employment is not in a parish or congregation, but who undertakes pastoral care and organizes worship services within a non-religious organization such as a school, hospital or the military.  There are a few special appointments where a chaplain may be a spiritual advisor and personal assistant to a bishop or a monarch.

Coadjutor

A bishop who has been appointed to assist a diocesan bishop.  Generally, a Coadjutor automatically becomes Diocesan in his or her own right, upon the retirement or resignation of the person currently in that office.

Commissary

A person appointed to exercise the administrative functions of a bishop, when the actual bishop is away from the diocese or otherwise indisposed.  A commissary may not perform any of the spiritual functions of a bishop, such as ordinations and the appointment is inherently temporary, the role expiring immediately upon the bishop’s return.

Curate

A deacon or a priest who functions as an assistant or subordinate to the Incumbent of a parish.  The word curate refers to the cure or care of souls, and while the word does suggest a primary and senior responsibility (indeed, in a French-speaking Roman Catholic Church the senior priest of a parish is called a curé), in the Anglican Church, a curate is always an assistant.

Dean

The most common meaning of this word in Anglicanism is “a priest who is the Incumbent of a cathedral, and the most senior priest of a diocese (under the bishop)”.  This title is not to be confused with academic deans and there are other Anglican officials with dean in their titles (such as Regional or District Dean) and their most familiar role is as the administrative heads of cathedrals.

Diocesan

A bishop in charge of a Diocese and it’s correct to say either the Diocesan or the diocesan bishop when referring to this office.  The Diocesan may also be referred to as the Ordinary.

Honorary (somethings)

An Honorary Assistant or Honorary Curate (and a few other variants) indicates an ordained person who functions as one of the clergy in a parish, but does so on a voluntary basis.  He or she may have other employment, or be retired from full-time paid ministry, but will preach, preside, or do pastoral care in the parish without receiving a living wage for it. The position is almost always official, formally designated as such by licence or certificate from the Bishop.  In this, honorary appointments in the church essentially mirror academic practice.

Father

Father is not actually a title, simply a form of address, a kind of courtesy title.

Incumbent

A technical term for a member of the clergy who has primary administrative, pastoral, and liturgical responsibilities in a parish or congregation.  Despite its official nature, this term is seldom used in conversation, and is often unknown among ordinary church members, who will usually refer to their Incumbent as the Rector.

Lay Canon

A non-ordained person who is given the honorary title of Canon, usually as a form of recognition for their leadership in some aspect of the church’s life.

Metropolitan

An archbishop who presides over a region of the church which may include several dioceses, bishops, and even archbishops; second only to a Primate in authority and responsibility.  Some Metropolitans are also Primates, and are officially described as Primate and Metropolitan.

Ministry Developer

In congregations and districts where the traditional clergy tasks (preaching, pastoral care, presiding etc) are divided up and done on a voluntary basis by different individuals (some ordained, some laity), the team leader is often given the title Ministry Developer.  This person is most often ordained and seminary trained, but need not be, provided only that he or she is good at enabling teamwork and communicating a rich sense of the church’s mission.

Ordinand

A person in the process of being ordained; preparation having been accomplished, the title exists only on the day of ordination.  Before, during, and after the liturgy, the brand new deacon or priest is correctly called an ordinand.

Ordinary

In a diocese or jurisdiction where there are a number of bishops, one of them always holds primary authority, and is called the Diocesan or, in some jurisdictions, the Ordinary (always with an uppercase O).  The etymology of ordinary in this context is murky but may relate to this person’s responsibility for deciding who gets ordained.

In the Anglican Church of Canada, a bishop who directs Anglican chaplains in the armed forces is also called the Bishop Ordinary.  This person is not assigned to any particular diocese and the duties of a Bishop Ordinary cross many diocesan and even national boundaries.

Parson

This is now an almost colloquial term applied to a member of the Anglican clergy.  Historically, in England it was an official designation for a salaried priest in charge of a parish.  The word derives from the Latin persona from which also is derived the very generic “person.”

Pastor

Although not a formal title in the Anglican Communion, some clergy find it acceptable, because it’s more widely understood than Rector or Incumbent.  Pastor means shepherd, and is quite suitable to use for any priest who has pastoral responsibilities.

Postulant

A person who has been accepted by the bishop as a candidate for ordination and is in the process of being trained.

Prebendary

An honorary canon, a title used almost exclusively in the UK.  Historically, in England, a prebendary was a member of the clerical staff of a cathedral or collegiate church; a paid position whose income derived from specially allocated rents of land administered by that church, the properties generating such rents was called a prebend.  Although prebend-based income is now rare (some claim it’s extinct) the honorary title of prebendary is still England.

Precentor

A person, usually a member of the clergy, who is responsible for organizing the liturgy and music of a large church (such as a great cathedral).

Presbyter

Another word for priest, both from the Ancient Greek πρεσβυτερος (presbuteros) (church elder).  There are dense theological arguments surrounding these words and while all official Anglican documents and ordination liturgies use priest, there are some places in the church which use presbyter to refer to this order, the second of the three basic Anglican orders.

Priest-in-Charge

A person who has the responsibilities and duties of an Incumbent, but on a temporary basis, the appointment always at the discretion of the bishop.

Primate

A bishop who presides over the Anglican Church in a large region, or even in an entire country.  There will be many dioceses, bishops, and occasionally some archbishops under a primate’s supervision.  The person who holds a comparable position in Scotland is called Primus and, in the US, the equivalent position is the Presiding Bishop.

Provost

Provost has many meanings in English, used also to refer to military police or the principal of a university college.  When applied to a member of the Anglican clergy, the word refers to a priest who is the Incumbent of a cathedral church.  The more common word for this position is Dean, but in Scotland, Kenya and some smaller countries, the correct title is Provost.

Rector

A priest who has primary administrative, pastoral, and liturgical responsibilities in a parish or congregation; similar to and sometimes identical with an Incumbent.  Some heads of academic schools are also called Rector but such officials need not be ordained, or connected with the church.

Regional bishop

A bishop in a large diocese who is one of several bishops, each having oversight over a specific geographic area of parishes and clergy within that diocese.  This person may be a coadjutor or a suffragan, or even the Diocesan.  Technically, regional bishops can function anywhere within the diocese, but they have a closer relationship with and more detailed knowledge of their particular district.

Regional Dean

A priest who has some pastoral and administrative oversight of a small group of parishes or congregations.  This position has less weight than that of an archdeacon, so there can be several regional deans in an archdeacon’s area of responsibility.  A regional dean is generally an Incumbent of one of the parishes in his or her Deanery.  The titles Rural Dean and District Dean refer to exactly the same function and of the three Rural Dean is probably the oldest but is falling from use as the worldwide trend of urbanisation continues.

Suffragan

A bishop who has been appointed to assist a diocesan bishop (the Ordinary).  In contrast to the position of Coadjutor, a Suffragan is not automatically the Diocesan’s successor.

Transitional Diaconate

A category of clergy who are ordained deacon in preparation for being ordained priest.  Clergy in the transitional diaconate tend to spend up to a year serving as deacons, after which ordination to the priesthood takes place following further review and inquiry.

Vicar

This has slightly different meanings in various parts of the Anglican world.  In England, a vicar is a salaried parish priest whereas in the US, they’re a priest responsible either for a mission or for an institutional chapel (a mission is a congregation that is either recently founded, or is not capable of being financially self-sustaining; a chapel is a place of worship in a hospital, or an airport, or a government building).  In many places the word vicar can be used for a priest who is acting in behalf of a senior official who is not present (similar to the English word, vicarious). 

Vocational Diaconate

A category of clergy ordained as deacons who intend to remain so for the rest of their lives, without being further ordained to the priesthood.  The role exists to provide for those who feel their vocation to be that of ministry and service, rather than presiding.

Ranga

Ranga (pronounced rang-ah)

In Australian slang, a person with red (ginger, auburn etc) hair

1990s: Based on the name orang-utan (pronounced aw-rang-oo-tan, oh-rang-oo-tan or uh-rang-oo-tan), either of two endangered species of long-armed, arboreal anthropoid great ape, the only extant members of the subfamily Ponginae, inhabiting Borneo (Pongo pygmaeus) and Sumatra (P. abelii).  The alternative spellings are orangutan, orangutang & orangoutang, all of which are used with the same pronunciation variation as the standard form.  In Western zoology, the orang-utan was added to the taxonomic classifications in the 1690s, from the Dutch orang outang, apparently from the Malay ōrang hūtan and translating literally as “forest man”, the construct being ōrang (man, person) + hūtan (forest).  Found in the forests of Sumatra and Borneo, it was noted immediately for its shaggy, reddish-brown hair and this coloration is the source of the Australian slang.

A ketchup of gingers?  Roodharigendag in the Netherlands.

Since 2005 (except in 2020 when COVID-19 stopped such things), the Netherlands has hosted what is described as the "world's largest gathering of redheads".  Unadventurously, the three-day festival (which attracts participants from over eighty nations) is known as Roodharigendag (Redhead Day).  There are a variety of events including lectures and pub-crawls; presumably, coffee shops are visited.

An Orangutan in Sumatra.  International Orangutan Day is 19 August.

Because, once deconstructed, to call someone a ranga is to compare them to a sub-human primate, it would seem the word probably would be thought offensive but it remains widely used and is one of the additions to English which has spread from Australia.  It certainly can be offensive and is often (though apparently mostly by children) used that way but it can also be a neutral descriptor or a form of self-identification by the redheaded.  It may be that many of those who deploy ranga (for whatever purpose) are unaware of the origin with a sub-human primate and treat it as just another word and in that sense it’s actually less explicit than some of the many alternatives with a longer linguistic lineage including ginger minge, firecrotch, carrot top, fanta pants, rusty crutch, & blood nut.  There was also the curiously Australian moniker “blue” (and the inevitable “bluey”) to describe the redheads, an adoption in the tradition of “lofty” sometimes being applied to the notably short.  Whether ranga is more or less offensive than any of those (none of which reference apes) is something on which not all redheads may agree but in 2017 (some months on from ranga being added to the Australian Dictionary), presumably so there was a forum to discuss such matters, RANGA (the Red And Nearly Ginger Association) was formed, finding its natural home on social media where it operates to provide social support rather than being a pressure group.

Ginger, copper, auburn & chestnut are variations on the theme of redheadedness.  Lindsay Lohan demonstrates the possibilities.

Just as blonde women have long been objectified and derided, redheads have been stereotyped as sexually promiscuous (women) or having fiery tempers (men & women) but there is no evidence supporting any relationship between hair color, personality type or temperament.  The sample sizes are inherently small (redheads less than 2% of the global population) but there are populations in which the predominance is higher, so further research would be interesting but such questions are of course now unfashionable.  Most style guides list "red-haired”, “redhead” and “redheaded” as acceptable descriptors but the modern practice is wherever possible to avoid references which apply to physical characteristics, much as the suggestion now is not to invoke any term related to race or ethnic origin.  That way nothing can go wrong.  If it’s a purely technical matter, such as hair products, then descriptors are unavoidable (part-numbers not as helpful at the retail level) and there’s quite an array, ranging from light ginger at the lighter end to chestnuts and and auburns at the darker and there was a time when auburn was used as something of a class-identifier.

Jessica Gagen, Miss England, 2022.

Recently victorious in the Miss England 2022 pageant, Jessica Gagen (b 1995) is the first redhead to take the title.  Having been subject to bullying as a child, Ms Gagen has indicated she’ll be using her platform to spread a positive message to those who have also suffered cruel taunts and she’ll represent England at the 71st Miss World in the (northern) spring of 2023.  After leaving school, Ms Gagen discovered one advantage of her hair color was it attracted modeling agencies and she pursued a lucrative international career.  Now studying for a masters degree in aerospace engineering at Liverpool University, she’s involved in a programme to encourage girls to take up the study of STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and math) subjects and notes her engineering course has made her aware of the extent to which these fields remain male-dominated.

Peak Jessica: Jessica Gagen pictured cooling off during England’s recent heat-wave when temperatures reached a record 42^o C (108^o F), something long thought impossible because of the interplay of the movement of seawater and sir currents around the British Isles.

Interestingly, Ms Gagen says her participation in beauty contests changed her perception of them as sexist displays, regarding that view as archaic, noting the women involved all seemed to have their own motives, usually involving raising awareness about something of great personal interest.  Another notable thing about Jessica Gagen is that being born in 1995, she is part of that sub-set of the population called “peak Jessica”, the cohort which reflected the extraordinary popularity of the name for a decade-odd.

Micturate

Micturate (pronounced mik-chuh-reyt)

(1) The desire to urinate (classical meaning).

(2) The act of passing urine; urination (modern use).

1835–1845: From the Latin micturīre (to have the urge to urinate), from mictūrus, from meiō (urinate), from the primitive Indo-European hemeygh (to urinate), the construct being mict(us), the past participle of mingere (to urinate) + -ur- (the desiderative suffix) + -ī- (inserted as a thematic vowel) + -re (the infinitive ending) + -ate (a word-forming element used in forming nouns from Latin words ending in -ātus, -āta, & -ātum (such as estate, primate & senate).  Those that came to English via French often began with -at, but an -e was added in the fifteenth century or later to indicate the long vowel.  It can also mark adjectives formed from Latin perfect passive participle suffixes of first conjugation verbs -ātus, -āta, & -ātum (such as desolate, moderate & separate).  Again, often they were adopted in Middle English with an –at suffix, the -e appended after circa 1400; a doublet of –ee).  Micturate is a verb, micturitional & micturient are adjectives, micturition is a noun and the derived intermicturition (being between acts of urination).

In Latin, micturate originally meant “a desire to urinate” but it’s now more often used to mean “the act of urination”, the medical profession seeming to like it, presumably because the somewhat obscure “micturate” and “micturition” better demonstrate superior learning than the well-known “urinate” and “urination”.  That’s probably true and at the other end of linguistic respectability there are other alternatives.  Rightly fearing the worst for his own case during the Nuremberg Trial (1945-1946), Hermann Göring (1893–1946; leading Nazi 1922-1945, Reichsmarschall of Germany, 1940-1945) decried an attempt by another defendant to offer arguments in mitigation by saying it was dishonorable “…just to want to piss out the front and shit out the back for a while longer”.

However, though Modern English borrowed micturate from Latin in the mid nineteenth century, the root of the word existed in Old English as (from which the Early Middle English gained miȝen), which then meant “to urinate” (both the Old and Middle English forms appearing in folk-tales recording how lakes and rivers came about from arose from the micturition of a giant or fairy.  So there’s a long history of parallel meanings (to want to go & to go) but urination seems to cover the latter well enough that no synonym seems necessary (and the reichsmarschall’s lead is there to follow if something earthier is needed) so if would be useful if English reserved micturate for the former.  Surely that distinction would be handy especially for the doctors?

Vertical integration: Lindsay Lohan demonstrates the possibility of combining micuration, urination and the assuaging of esurience, Mean Girls (2004).