Pontifex maximus pointed out that the term existed before there were any bridges in Rome and derived the word from Old Latin "pontis" (sic) meaning a powerful or absolute master, while others derived it from "potis facere" in the sense of "able to sacrifice". The last derivation is mentioned also by Varro, who rejected it, but it was the view of Pontifex Maximus Quintus Scaevola. Others have held that the word was originally "pompifex" (leader of public processions). The word "pons" originally meant "way" and "pontifex" would thus mean "maker of roads and bridges". Another opinion is that the word is a
Latin obscenity used in a metaphorical sense, as at Martial 3.17, speaking of a tart which had been blown on by a man with impure breath (caused no doubt by oral sex) to cool it down: The politer terms for "merda" in Classical Latin were "stercus" (gen. "stercoris"), "manure" and "fimum" or "fimus", "filth." "Stercus" was used frequently in the Vulgate, as in its well-known translation of Psalm 112:7: (Psalm 113:7 in the KJV.) In Classical Latin, "faex", plural "faecēs", meant the dregs, such as are found in a bottle of wine; the word did not acquire the sense of feces until