Why use the terms Papal visit and gubernatorial election when there's no such thing as a 'Pape' or 'Gubernor'?

Question

It would be so much simpler and straightforward to use the terms 'Popal visit' and 'Governortorial Election.' Our English language is complex enough without further complicating things by twisting root words inside out when adding endings.

Answer 1

Actually, there WAS a word "gubernator". The reason the modern terms in your two pairs differ is that they were borrorwed from Latin at different times, through different channels.

So for "governor" & "gubernatorial" --

The Latin . . . "gubernare," meaning "to rule" . . . gave us the English word "gubernator" around 1522, meaning "ruler." The adjective "gubernatorial," which appeared around 1734, at first meant "pertaining to a ruler or governor" in the generic sense of "governor," but today is almost always only used in reference to state officials bearing the formal title "Governor."

TheLatin word "gubernare". . . was also filtered through Old French to produce the word "governeur," meaning "ruler," which gave us the English word "governor" in the 14th century
http://www.word-detective.com/061300.html

So it is not a matter of English having decided to change the root, and in fact the adjectival form is CLOSER to the Latin original.

It is true that the forms of an English noun and its associated adjective can differ. Three important ways this happens:

1) each form is borrowed separately (as with governer, gubernatorial)... and so one English form is NOT based on the other

2) a shift in accent can change vowel sounds in different forms, and so we end with "emperor" and its adjectival form "imperial"

3) the MOST unusual cases are those where the noun and its adjective are original UN-related. This happens mostly when the simple noun goes back to the Anglo-Saxon and the adjectival form was borrowed from Latin. Thus we have "paternal" for the noun "father".

"Many such Latinate words entered English via the Norman French spoken by the aristocracy in England following the Norman Conquest, or as scientific terms from the period when all scientific work was done in Latin."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adjective#Adjectives_of_relation

Here's a nice list of such adjectives and their associated nouns:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_non-standard_English_adjectives

Answer 2

I'd suggest you visit the OED website to learn how words in English begin to be use.

Use the links at the following website - http://www.oed.com/about/

Answer 3

Because the English language draws influence from many other languages and doesn't follow rules as it should.

Answer 4

there are a poop and a guber aka goober