Etymologically
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god

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ɡɒd/ (UK); /ɡɑːd/ (US)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English god, inherited from Old English god (“deity, God”) (plural neuter godu, masculine godas),[2][3] from Proto-Germanic *guþan,[4] whose descendants include Old Frisian god, Old Saxon god, Dutch god, Old High German got (modern German Gott), Old Norse goð, guð and Gothic 𐌲𐌿𐌸 (guþ).[5][2][4] The further origin is uncertain.[4][2] One view derives it from Proto-Indo-European *gheu(ə)- (“to call, invoke”), so that a god was “the one invoked”, comparing Sanskrit हवते (hávate, “he calls, invokes”);[4][6][7] another, given by Watkins, derives it from a root meaning “to pour (a libation)”, so that it may first have named the spirit living in a burial mound.[4][8] It is not related to good, although that derivation was long popular.[4][9][10] The Germanic word was originally neuter and became masculine after the Germanic peoples were converted to Christianity.[5][4][11] It is not related to Latin deus or Greek θεός (theós).[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

A superhuman being worshipped as having power over nature and human fortunes; also the Christian God, an image of a god and a godlike person (Old English; about 725 in Beowulf).[5][4][13]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline suggests that Old English god was closer in sense to Latin numen than to deus.[4] With Christianity it became the name of the one God, and in that sense is usually capitalized.[4][3] Johnson (1755) still derived it from good.[14] Oaths by parts of God's body were common in Middle English (for Goddes banes in Chaucer),[15] and the English habit of swearing God damn gave French goddam, “an Englishman”.[11] The highest gallery of a theatre was called the regions of the gods in the 1750s, later just the gods, because its seats were nearest the heavens.[12][11] God from the machine, a translation of deus ex machina, is from 1868.[13] The verb “to deify, to idolize” dates from 1595.[13][7]

Timeline

  • c. 725 – Old English god (Beowulf).[5]
  • c. 825 – a superhuman being worshipped as a deity.[13]
  • c. 1000 – an image of a god; an idol.[13]
  • 1382 – the god of this world, the Devil.[13]
  • c. 1386 – oaths such as for Goddes banes (Chaucer).[15]
  • 1595 – verb, to deify, to worship as a god.[13][7]
  • 1601 – ye gods.[13]
  • 1750s – the gods, the theatre gallery.[12]
  • 1868 – god from the machine.[13]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. God: in monotheistic religions, the creator and ruler of the universe; the supreme being.
  2. A superhuman being worshipped as having power over nature or some part of human life; a deity.
  3. An image of a god; an idol.
  4. A person or thing given excessive devotion: money was his god.
  5. A greatly admired or influential man.
  6. (the gods, informal) The gallery of a theatre.

Interjection

  1. God! Used to express surprise, anger or emphasis.

Verb

  1. (rare) To treat as a god; to deify.

Usage notes

Referring to the God of the monotheistic religions, the word is written with a capital letter and without the.[16] Weekley noted how often it is disguised in oaths, as in swop me bob for so help me God.[11]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  6. ^ Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  7. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  9. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2008), 11th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap
  11. ^ a b c d Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  12. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  15. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  16. ^ Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (2009), 5th ed., Harlow: Pearson Longman