deity

deity
\ \ [14] Deity comes via Old French deite from late Latin deitāsgodhood, divinity’, a derivative of Latin deusgod’. This traces its ancestry back to Indo-European *deiwos, which has links with other words meaning ‘sky’ and ‘day’ and probably comes ultimately from a base with the sense ‘bright, shining’. Amongst its other descendants are English divine, the personifications Greek Zeus, Latin Iuppiter and Iovis (source of English jovial), and Old English Tīw (source of English Tuesday), and Sanskrit dēvásgod’ (source of English deodarvariety of cedar’ [19], literally ‘divine wood’); the superficially similar Greek theósgod’, however, is not related. English is also indebted to Latin deus for deify [14] and, via a somewhat circuitous route, the joss [18] of joss-stick, a Pidgin English word which comes from deos, the Portuguese descendant of deus.
\ \ Cf.DIVINE, JOSS, JOVIAL, TUESDAY

Word origins - 2ed. . 2005.

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  • Deity — • This article is confined to the non Christian notion of the Deity Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006. Deity     Deity     † …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • Deity — De i*ty (d[=e] [i^]*t[y^]), n.; pl. {Deities} (d[=e] [i^]*t[i^]z). [OE. deite, F. d[ e]it[ e], fr. L. deitas, fr. deus a god; akin to divus divine, Jupiter, gen. Jovis, Jupiter, dies day, Gr. di^os divine, Zey s, gen. Dio s, Zeus, Skr. d[=e]va… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • deity — [dē′ə tē] n. [ME deite < OFr deité < LL(Ec) deitas, divinity (after L divinitas) < L deus, god < IE * deiwos, god < base * dei , to gleam, shine > Sans deva, god, L dies, day, divus, god] 1. the state of being a god; divine… …   English World dictionary

  • deity — c.1300, divine nature; late 14c., a god, from O.Fr. deité, from L.L. deitatem (nom. deitas) divine nature, coined by Augustine from L. deus god, from PIE *deiwos (see ZEUS (Cf. Zeus)) …   Etymology dictionary

  • deity — [n] god, worshiped being celestial, celestial being, creator, divine being, divinity, goddess, godhead, idol, immortal, supreme being; concepts 368,370 …   New thesaurus

  • deity — ► NOUN (pl. deities) 1) a god or goddess. 2) divine status, quality, or nature. ORIGIN Latin deitas, from deus god …   English terms dictionary

  • Deity — For other uses, see List of deities and Names of God. Part of a series on God …   Wikipedia

  • Deity — (Roget s Thesaurus) < N PARAG:Deity >N GRP: N 1 Sgm: N 1 Deity Deity Divinity Sgm: N 1 Godhead Godhead Godship Sgm: N 1 Omnipotence Omnipotence Providence =>(Quality of being divine) GRP: N Quality of being divine Sgm: N Qua …   English dictionary for students

  • deity — /dee i tee/, n., pl. deities. 1. a god or goddess. 2. divine character or nature, esp. that of the Supreme Being; divinity. 3. the estate or rank of a god: The king attained deity after his death. 4. a person or thing revered as a god or goddess …   Universalium

  • deity — noun ADJECTIVE ▪ powerful, supreme ▪ lesser, minor ▪ one of the minor Greek deities ▪ benevolent ▪ …   Collocations dictionary

  • deity — UK [ˈdeɪətɪ] / UK [ˈdiːətɪ] / US [ˈdɪətɪ] noun [countable] Word forms deity : singular deity plural deities a god …   English dictionary

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