posted in Asklemmy
Can somebody please explain why nouns like "the Devil", "the Pope", "the Holy Spirit" need the word "the"?
Aren’t they all proper nouns and therefore supposed to not need the definite article?
The devil’s name isn’t “Devil.” it’s Satan or Lucifer or Beelzebub, etc. The Pope’s name isn’t “Pope.” It’s Leo XIV or Robert Francis Prevos.
The holy spirit is a funny exception, since it doesn’t have an actual name, but this still feels right, even there.
The sun and moon are other examples. Historically there’s no reason to have a name for them, since they’re the only one. Sol gets called Sol in some contexts now, and there’s Luna, but that hasn’t really caught on - it’s usually “Earth’s moon”.
You can definitely talk about Popes plural, if you don’t just mean the current one.