An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Pfaffe
Pfaffe, m., ‘priest, parson,’ from MidHG. pfaffe, OHG. pfaffo, m., ‘priest’; corresponding to LG. and Du. pape, ‘priest’; the common prim. form is păpo. The MidLat. term is clericus. The usual assumption that the word is derived from Lat. pâpa, which was in the Western Church a respectful term applied to bishops and a title of the Pope, does not account for the fact that the term means ‘priest’ in all the Teut. dialects of MidEur., and therefore must be decidedly rejected. In the Greek Church a distinction was made between πάπας, ‘pope,’ and παπᾶς, ‘clericus minor’; with the latter sense the G. cognates are connected. It would also be remarkable if the p of a Latin word introduced into G. at the period of the Roman conversion had undergone permutation (comp. Priester, predigen, and Propst). The Gr. word (possibly in the vocat. form παπᾶ?) may have been widely diffused throughout Germany even in the 6th cent.; it was introduced perhaps at a somewhat later period than Kirche, as might be inferred from the absence of the word păpa, ‘priest,’ in AS. and E. Here too we have a trace of the influence of the Greek Church on the Teutons; yet we cannot determine which tribe adopted Gr. παπᾶς as păpa in its vocabulary and passed on the term (the meaning of Goth. papa in the Milan Calendar is obscure). It found its way even into OIc., in which pape, however, was strangely enough used by the Irish anchorites found in Iceland by the Northmen when they colonised the island. With regard to Lat. pâpa see Papst.