deus

de--us lat. "Gott"

Alternative forms

• Deus (letter case, God in Abrahamic faiths)
• dius (used in the phrase "me dius fidius")

Etymology

From Old Latin deivos, from Proto-Italic *deiwos, from Proto-Indo-European *deywós. An o-stem derivative from *dyew- (“sky, heaven”), from which also diēs and Iuppiter.

[ show ▼]Details

Despite its superficial similarity in form and meaning, not related to Ancient Greek θεός (theós) — the Latin cognate of the latter is Latin fānum.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈde.us/, [ˈd̪eʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈde.us/, [ˈd̪ɛːus]

Audio (Classical)

Duration: 2 seconds.0:02

Noun

deus m (irregular, genitive deī, feminine dea); second declension

1. god, deity [ quotations ▼]
2. the ancient Roman “Dī Penātēs,” personal or family gods of hearth and home, embodied as small statues or icons [ quotations ▼]
3. epithet of high distinction [ quotations ▼]

Usage notes

• The regularly constructed vocative singular form would be *dee, but this inflection is not attested in Classical Latin; polytheistic Romans had no formal use for vocally addressing one of the many Roman deities by a generic term for god rather than address a deity by proper name. In Late Latin, following Rome's conversion to monotheistic Christianity, Dee and Deus were adopted as the vocative singular form to address the Christian God, attested to throughout the 4th century AD Biblical Latin Vulgate Bible of St. Jerome. Some scholars suggest dive was used as the classical vocative singular, while others believe the form simply did not exist prior to Christian Latin. However the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae and Oxford Latin Dictionary assert that the classical vocative singular was in fact deus, citing its rhetorical usage by Roman physician Scribonius Largus in the 1st century AD.

Declension

Second-declension noun (irregular).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	deus	dī diī deī
Genitive	deī	deōrum deûm divom
Dative	deō	dīs diīs deīs
Accusative	deum	deōs
Ablative	deō	dīs diīs deīs
Vocative	dee deus	dī diī deī