dios

Forms

dios m (plural dioses, feminine diosa, feminine plural diosas)^[1] The oldest texts have Dios as vocative and subject and Dio in the other cases.^[2] Old Spanish also wrote Dieos and Deus.^[2][3][4] An Aragonese document of 1379 has Dieus.^[2] The plural of the pagan gods was los dios throughout the 13th century; the analogical dioses appears in the 15th-century Aragonese manuscript of the Libro de Alexandre, and in Alonso de Palencia and Nebrija.^[2] The feminine was first deessa, then diosesa (c. 1400) and diosa (c. 1490, the Celestina).^[2]

Etymology

It continues inherited from Old Spanish dios, inherited from Latin deus (“god”).^[2][5][6][1] Unlike most Spanish nouns it comes from the Latin nominative deus, not from the accusative deum: the oldest texts used the nominative form as vocative and subject and Dio in the other cases, and the nominative won out because the word was so often used as a vocative, in prayers and exclamations.^[2][7] Wiktionary also mentions the influence of Church Latin, and compares names such as Jesús and Carlos.^[1] The accent, at first on ⟨i⟩, moved early to the fuller vowel, as the verse of Berceo and of the Libro de Alexandre shows.^[2]

Portuguese deus and Galician deus also generalised the nominative, while Old French and Old Occitan kept a subject form and an object form until the 13th century.^[8] Old Catalan Déus beside Déu kept the distinction for a time.^[8] The other Romance forms are French dieu, Italian dio and Aromanian zeu;^[9][3] Judeo-Spanish has Ladino dio.^[9][3]

deus is the Old Latin deivos, from Proto-Italic *deiwos, from Proto-Indo-European *deywós (“god”).^[10][1] De Vaan glosses the Indo-European word as “god of the clear sky”, and Wiktionary derives it from *dyew- (“sky, heaven”), the source also of Latin diēs (“day”) and Iuppiter.^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Glosas Silenses, of the second half of the 10th century, have the phrase colitura de Dio “worship of God”, with the oblique form.^[2][3] A document of 1097 already has amor de Dios, and in the Cantar de mio Cid and the other literary texts the form Dios is used in every case.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish used the word for the God of Christianity and for the pagan gods, often in oaths such as par Dios.^[11] Corominas reports that the plural los dios gave Spanish Jews grounds to reproach Christians with polytheism, while in their own speech they called God el Dío.^[2] In the Golden Age Dios could be the subject of impersonal weather verbs: amanecerá Dios y medraremos in the Quijote.^[2]

The Academy's dictionaries list many proverbs, among them a Dios rogando y con el mazo dando “praying to God and striking with the mallet”, a call to do one's own part.^[12] The 1817 edition also has the figurative sense of anything loved without measure, as money is the miser's god.^[12] Today dios also names a person who is greatly admired, and todo dios means “everybody”.^[13][6] In Central America and the Caribbean formulas such as Dios guarde and primero Dios express a wish that something may or may not happen.^[14] The word passed into Tagalog, Cebuano, Quechua and other languages of the former Spanish empire.^[1]

Timeline

• 900s – the Glosas Silenses have colitura de Dio.^[2][5]
• 1097 – a document has amor de Dios.^[2]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses Dios in all cases.^[2]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it for God, the Picatrix for the pagan gods.^[11]
• 1379 – an Aragonese document has the form Dieus.^[2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija has Dios bivo y verdadero, Latin deus immortalis.^[15]
• 1520 – first record from the Americas, in Cuba.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives it from Latin Deus and discusses its supposed origins.^[17]
• 1732 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines it and notes its use for the false gods of the gentiles.^[18]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology, Latin Deus.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. (written Dios) God, the supreme being, creator of the universe in the monotheistic religions.^[6][20][1]
2. A god, a deity of a polytheistic religion; feminine diosa: los dioses del panteón nórdico.^[6][1]
3. A person who is greatly admired or idolised.^[13]
4. (in exclamations, ¡Dios!, ¡Dios mío!) Used to express surprise, fear or annoyance.^[21]

Word family

• diosa
• semidiós
• endiosar
• adiós
• pordiosero

Related words

• deidad
• divino
• divo
• adivinar
• día
• Latin deus

Usage notes

Written with a capital, Dios is the proper name of God in the monotheistic religions; with a small letter it is the common noun.^[20][1] The farewell adiós comes from the phrase a Dios seas “be with God”, and pordiosero “beggar” from pedir por Dios “to beg for God's sake”.^[5] Todo dios “everybody” is colloquial.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 498
3. ^ a b c d García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. Deus
4. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. dios 1
5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. dios
6. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. dios
7. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. dios
8. ^ a b Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 3, 111
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. dios
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 326
13. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. dios
14. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. dios, sa
15. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 336
16. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. dío
17. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 676
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 285
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 388
20. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. dios
21. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. dios