Archbishop

What is the difference between a bishop and an archbishop? Everyone knows archbishop is the higher rank, but what is the exact significance of the arch part? There are two principal sources for the word arch in English, one Greek and the other Latin and the meanings are very different. The Latin source, arcus, meaning an arch, bow or curve, gives us arch as in a curved building structure and words like arc, a curved parabola, and of course archer. The Greek source archos (ǎρχος) is quite different and is the source of words like archbishop. Archos means chief or pre-eminent and is used as a prefix, arch-, archi- or arche-, in words and phrases like archangel, arch enemy, arch rival, architect, archetype etc, but also as a suffix, -arch, in words like monarch, matriarch etc. Arch meaning sly, cunning or saucy dates from the late 17th century, derives from the same Greek source and stems from abbreviated forms of phrases like arch knave, arch rogue etc. These two distinct and different etymological routes should not be confused with another Greek source, namely, archaios (άρχaίoς) meaning old or ancient, from which words like archaic and archaeology are derived.