goddess
(ˈgɒdɪs)
Forms: 4 goodesse, 4–5 godesse, (godes, godas), 4–6 goddes, (5 goddis), 4–7 goddesse, (6 Sc. goddace), 7– goddess.
[f. god n. + -ess; cf. Du. godes.]
1. A female deity in polytheistic systems of religion. Freq. with phrase denoting the sphere of influence or power, as goddess of love, night, etc. (Cf. god 1.)
| 1340–70 Alex. & Dind. 561 Proserpine þat ȝe..holden godesse god to gien ȝou here. Ibid. 690 Ȝe sain þat Ceres..is a goodesse god. c 1386 Chaucer Knt.'s T. 243, I noot wher she be womman or goddesse. c 1400 Mandeville (1839) iv. 23 A Goddesse that was clept Deane. 1490 Caxton Eneydos xxii. 83 Proserpine of hell, the gret goddesse. 1548 Hall Chron., Edw. IV, 192 Such an unstable and blind goddes is fortune. 1606 Shakes. Ant. & Cl. iii. vi. 17 She In th' abiliments of the Goddesse Isis That day appeer'd. 1667 Milton P.L. v. 78 Taste this, and be henceforth among the Gods Thy self a Goddess. 1710 Steele Tatler No. 194 ¶2 This Temple..bore the Name of the Goddess Venus. 1835 Thirlwall Greece (1839) I. v. 153 Theseus..is said to have found her dancing in the temple of the goddess. 1847 Tennyson Princ. i. 194 Remembering how we three presented Maid Or Nymph, or Goddess [etc.]. |
2. Applied to a woman.
one's goddess: the woman whom one ‘worships’ or devotedly admires.
| 1579 E. K. Gloss. Spenser's Sheph. Cal. Apr. 26 Lauretta the diuine Petrarches Goddesse. 1729 H. Carey Poems (ed. 3) 205 He call'd her his Goddess, she call'd him an Ass. 1877 Mrs. Oliphant Makers Flor. i. 18 Only looks had passed between the lad and his goddess. |
3. A female spectator in a theatre-gallery (
cf. god 4).
| 1812 [see god n. 4]. 1824 B. Hall Jrnl. Voy. Chili, etc. (1825) I. iii. 133 The gallery aloft, where the goddesses keep up an increasing fire during the whole evening. |
4. attrib. and
Comb., as
goddess-mother,
goddess-train,
goddess-worker;
goddess-like adj. and
adv.;
goddess-born ppl. a.
| 1697 Dryden æneid iii. 402 Are you alive, O *Goddess born! she said, Or if a Ghost, then where is Hector's Shade? 1870 Bryant Iliad I. vi. 186 Achilles the great leader whom they call The goddess-born. |
| a 1586 Sidney Arcadia i. (1633) 51 Or that she (*goddess-like) would worke this miracle with her selfe. 1611 Shakes. Cymb. iii. ii. 8 She..vndergoes More Goddesse-like, then Wife-like, such Assaults [etc.]. 1667 Milton P.L. viii. 59 With Goddess-like demeanour forth she went. 1758 C. Lennox Henrietta (1761) II. 208 What signifies attributing such goddess-like perfections to an obscure girl? |
| 1662 R. D. Ternary Eng. Plays To Rdr. *3 b, I thought it best to get them [the Graces] to stand *goddess-mothers jointly for all three [plays]. 1715–20 Pope Iliad i. 746 Thou, Goddess-Mother, with our Sire comply. 1855 Kingsley Heroes iii. 104 The voice which my goddess mother gave me. |
| 1725 Pope Odyss. viii. 364 Modesty withheld the *Goddess-train. |
| 1587 Golding De Mornay iii. 37 It is the Wisedome whereby God worketh, which is the *Goddesse-worker. |