deify

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English deifien,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French deifier,^[3][4][5] now French déifier,^[6][7] which the OED records from the 13th century.^[6] The French verb comes from Late Latin deificō (“to make godlike”),^[3][4][5][8] used by Augustine and Cassiodorus,^[6] from deificus (“making godlike, divine”),^[3][4] from Latin deus (“god”) and -ficō, the combining form of faciō (“to make, do”).^[3][9][10] Etymonline traces deus to Proto-Indo-European *dyeu- (“to shine”) and faciō to Proto-Indo-European *dhe- (“to set, put”).^[3] Johnson derived the English verb from French, and ultimately from Latin deus combined with fīō.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make godlike in nature, character or spirit: before 1340, in Rolle's Psalter.^[6][7] Barnhart dates it about 1340, "in an early psalter",^[4] and Etymonline to the mid-14th century, in the form deifien.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The first, theological sense was to make a person godlike in spirit.^[6][3] The sense "to make a god of, to raise to the rank of a deity" followed in the late 14th century:^[3] Gower used the verb three times in the Confessio Amantis (1393),^[12][6] of the elements and heavenly bodies, which cannot be deified, and of Venus, whom lovers deify.^[2] From 1590, in Spenser, it also meant to treat or adore someone as a god;^[6] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1580s.^[3] Johnson (1755) gave two senses, to make a god of or adore as a god, and to praise someone excessively, as if he were a god, quoting Bacon on a man who extolled and deified the pope.^[11] This weaker sense, to idealize or exalt beyond measure, is the third sense in the modern dictionaries.^[13][14][15]

Timeline

• before 1340 – to make godlike in nature or spirit, in Rolle's Psalter.^[6][4]
• 1393 – to make a god of, to raise to the rank of a deity, in Gower's Confessio Amantis.^[6][2]
• 1590 – to treat or adore as a god, in Spenser.^[6] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1580s.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make a god of; to raise to the rank of a deity: The Senate deified the dead emperor.^{[13][15][14][6]}
2. To worship or revere as a god.^{[13][16][14][6]}
3. To glorify or idealize beyond measure: Fans tend to deify the band's late singer.^{[13][15][14][11]}
4. To make godlike in character or appearance.^[15][6][7]

Word family

• deifier

Related words

• deific
• deification
• deity
• divine
• -fy

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
13. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
14. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
16. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster