I don't understand the imagery in the quote below that I bolded:
The centerpiece of his research is the etymology or origin of the word “catholic.” While we do commonly use it to mean “universal,” Ong points out that the Latin or Roman Church (as distinct from the Orthodox or Eastern Church) had a word for universal in Latin — universalis. Ong asked:
If “universal” is the adequate meaning of “catholic,” why did the Latin church, which in its vernacular language had the word universalis, not use this word but rather borrowed from Greek the term katholikos instead, speaking of the “one, holy, catholic and apostolic church (to put it into English) instead of the “one, holy, universal and apostolic church”?
Great question!
Ong explains that it has a theological and practical significance. The origin of “universal” in Latin likely comes from the two root-words unum (meaning “one”) and vertere (meaning “turn”). The image it evokes is something like an architect’s compass, which is used to make a circle around “one” central point.
Etymonline avers:
Latin universum "all things, everybody, all people, the whole world," noun use of neuter of adjective universus "all together, all in one, whole, entire, relating to all,"
literally "turned into one," from unus "one" (from PIE root *oi-no- "one, unique") + versus,
past participle of vertere "to turn, turn back, be turned; convert, transform, translate; be changed"
(from PIE root *wer- (2) "to turn, bend").
But what exactly does a pair of compasses 'turn around one central point'? It feels humdrum to turn an area of previously blank space on a paper around one central point?