deity (English)

Where does "deity" come from?

The English noun 'deity' reached the language through Middle French 'deité'[1]. This descended from Latin 'deitās', a term coined by Augustine of Hippo as a translation after 'dīvīnitās'[2]. The Latin base goes back to 'deus', which traces to Proto-Italic '*deiwos' and ultimately to the Proto-Indo-European root '*dyew-', meaning 'sky, heaven'[3][4].

Open questions

The exact derivation and historical reshaping of plural forms within the Latin paradigm of deus involve several complex phonetic developments and analogical reincorporations. [3]

Full etymology tree

deity (English), 'Synonym of divinity: the state, position, or fact of being a god.'
- borrowed deité (Middle French), 'deity, god'
  - inherited deitas (Latin), 'divinity, deity, the nature of a god'
    - compound deus (Latin), 'god, deity'
      - inherited deivos (Latin), 'god, deity'
        inherited *deiwos (Proto-Italic), 'god, deity'
        inherited *deywós (Proto-Indo-European), 'god'
        derived *dyew- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to be bright, to shine'
        suffix *-ós (Proto-Indo-European), 'Creates adjectives from verb stems; they may have agentive or patientive meaning.'
    - suffix -tas (Latin), '-ty, -dom, -hood, -ness, -ship; Used to form feminine abstract nouns indicating a state of being.'
    - calque divinitas (Latin), 'divinity, Godhead, godhood'

Ancestors

*dyew- (Proto-Indo-European)
deité (Middle French)
deitas (Latin)

Descendants and derived words

deityhood (English)
deityless (English)
deitylike (English)
deityship (English)
demideity (English)
lunar deity (English)
moon deity (English)
multideity (English)
overdeity (English)
semideity (English)
solar deity (English)
subdeity (English)

Sources

Updated August 2026

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Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris