deus Latin · revision 2761

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=Very Old Latin, Duenos inscription|origins=ine-pro *deywós}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA (Classical): [ˈde.ʊs]^(Wiktionary)

+ * IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈdɛː.us]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''deus''' ''m'' (genitive deī, feminine dea); irregular, second declension^(Wiktionary)

+ The nominative plural is ''dī'', ''deī'' or ''diī'', the genitive plural ''deōrum'' or ''deum'', the dative and ablative ''dīs'', ''deīs'' or, in inscriptions, ''dibus''; the vocative singular is ''deus'', and Old Latin had ''deivos''.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|itc-pro|*deiwos]], [[inh|ine-pro|*deywós|t=god, god of the bright sky]], an o-stem derivative of [[ine-pro|*dyew-|t=sky, daylight]], the root of [[dies|alt=diēs]] and [[Iuppiter]].^(de Vaan 2008)^(Wiktionary)^(Pokorny 1959) Cognate with [[xve|deivos]], [[osc|deívaí]] and [[sga|día]] “god”, with [[sa|देव|tr=devá-|t=god]] and [[ae|daēuua-|t=god, demon]], with [[prg|deywis]], [[lt|dievas|alt=diẽvas]] and [[lv|dievs|alt=dìevs]] “god”, and with the Germanic war-god's name [[non|Týr]], [[ang|Tīw]] and [[goh|Zīo]].^(de Vaan 2008)^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ De Vaan explains the two Latin stems from one paradigm: Italic *deiw- became *dēw-, and *w was then lost before back vowels but kept before front vowels, where the long vowel was raised (genitive *dīwī, plural *dīwīs), giving [[m|la|deum]] and [[m|la|deō]] but [[m|la|dīs]]; the two reflexes were later split in meaning, so that ''deus'' is the god and [[divus|alt=dīvus]] “divine”.^(de Vaan 2008)^(Wiktionary) Varro derived the word from [[m|la|Diovis]] and [[m|la|Diespiter]], “father day”.^(TLL) Georges compares [[grc|θεός|tr=theós|t=god]], which Lewis and Short expressly exclude.^(Georges 1913)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The Very Old Latin Duenos inscription has ''deivos'', and inscriptions from Pisaurum of the 3rd century BC ''deiva'';^(de Vaan 2008)^(Köbler 2010) Plautus says that the one whom the [[m|en|god|alt=gods]] love dies young.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It was a god of the Roman pantheon, in collective titles (''dī penates'', ''dī manes'') and in everyday exclamations (''di te ament'', ''si dis placet'').^(OLD 2012) It was applied in hyperbole to people (Terence's “I am a god if this is so”, Caecilius' “man is a god to man”), to deified emperors, and to the statue of a god, as in Cicero's charge that Verres left the Sicilians no god.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Philosophers used it for the divine essence or supreme being, as when Cicero reports the view that all is one and that one is god.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ Christian writers made it the name of the one God and of the persons of the Trinity, and a medieval etymology explained it from ''diligere'', “because he loves all he has created”.^(MLW)^(Stelten 1995) Every Romance language keeps it, from Sardinian ''deu'' and Romanian ''zău'' to Italian ''dio'', French ''dieu'', Spanish ''dios'' and Portuguese ''deus'',^(DÉRom)^(Wiktionary) and French ''adieu'' passed into German as ''ade''.^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 7th–3rd century BC – The Duenos inscription has ''deivos''.^(de Vaan 2008)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of the gods.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 234–149 BC – Cato's prayer runs ''si deus, si dea es'', “whether you are god or goddess”.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 230/220–168 BC – Caecilius writes that man is a god to man.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of statues of gods and of the supreme being.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 20 BC–30 AD – Velleius says Caesar made his father a god.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|god]], a deity, and in the plural the gods, in collective titles and exclamations.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # ''(hyperbolic)'' A person of godlike achievement or happiness; a deified emperor.^(OLD 2012)

+ # The statue or image of a god.^(OLD 2012)

+ # ''(philosophy)'' The divine essence, the supreme being.^(OLD 2012)

+ # ''(Christian Latin)'' God; a person of the Trinity.^(MLW)^(Stelten 1995)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[dea]]

+ * [[deicīda]]

+ * [[deifer]]

+ * [[deificō]]

+ * [[deificus]]

+ * [[deipara]]

+ * [[deisatus]]

+ * [[deitās]]

+ * [[dīvus]]

+ * [[sēmideus]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[diēs]]

+ * [[diū]]

+ * [[Iūpiter]]

+ * [[en|deity]]

+ * [[en|deism]]

+ * [[en|adieu]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ Döderlein notes that [[numen|alt=nūmen]] is any divine being in the wide sense and, in the narrow sense, a kind of ''deus'', while [[divus|alt=dīvus]] is the older word.^(Döderlein 1874) The irregular plural forms are a result of the sound changes described in the Etymology.^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}