deity
(ˈdiːɪtɪ, ˈdeɪɪtɪ)
Also 4–6 deite, deyte, 4 deitee, 6–7 deitie, (5 deyite, -yte, dietie, 5–7 diety, 7 dyety).
[a. F. déité, in 12th c. deitet, deite (= Pr. deitat, Sp. deidad, It. deità), ad. L. deitās, deitāt-em, f. de-us god (formed by Augustine, De Civ. Dei vii. i., after L. dīvīnitās): see -ity.]
1. a. The estate or rank of a god; godhood; the personality of a god; godship; esp. with poss. pron.
| c 1374 Chaucer Troylus iii. 968 But o þow Ioue..Is þis an honour to þi deite. c 1386 ― Frankl. T. 319 Though Neptunus haue deitee in the See. c 1440 J. Capgrave Life St. Kath. iv. 764 Whi shulde appollo bere ony deyte? 1594 Marlowe & Nashe Dido iii. ii, That ugly imp that shall..wrong my deity with high disgrace. 1594 Shakes. Rich. III, i. i. 76 Lord Hastings..Humbly complaining to her Deitie, Got my Lord Chamberlaine his libertie. 1611 ― Wint. T. iv. iv. 26 The Goddes themselues (Humbling their Deities to loue). a 1618 Raleigh (J.), By what reason could the same deity be denied unto Laurentia and Flora, which was given to Venus? 1619 Drayton Man in Moon (R.), Yet no disguise her deity could smother, So far in beauty she excelled other. 1844 Mrs. Browning Dead Pan xxviii, All the false gods with a cry Rendered up their deity. |
b. The divine quality, character, or nature of God; Godhood, divinity; the divine nature and attributes, the Godhead.
| 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. xi. 43 Þus þei drauelen on heore deys þe Deite to knowe. c 1394 P. Pl. Crede 825 Freres wyln for her pride Disputen of þis deyte as dotardes schulden. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. i. (1495) 3 The lyghte of the heuenly dyuyne clarete, couerte, & closid in the deyte or in the godhede. c 1489 Caxton Blanchardyn liv. 213 Whose eternall dietie raigneth within the highest heauens. 1502 Ord. Crysten Men (W. de W. 1506) Prol. 2 The fader the sone & the holy ghost, one essence of deite. 1514 Barclay Cyt. & Uplondyshm. (Percy Soc.) 17 To honour our Lorde, & pease his deyte. 1594 T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. ii. Seneca, The creator..hath set such markes of his diety in his workes. 1633 Bp. Hall Hard Texts, N.T. 57 In my..infinite Deity I will be ever present with you. 1667 Milton P.L. x. 65. 1736 Chandler Hist. Persec. 47 The same man opposed the Deity of the Son of God. 1835 Gentl. Mag. Oct. 397/1 Mr. Gurney's work..is chiefly confined to the Deity of Christ. There is something open and decided in saying Deity, rather than Divinity. |
† c. The condition or state in which the Divine Being exists. Obs.
| c 1400 Rom. Rose 5656 And leven alle humanite, And purely lyve in deite. c 1485 Digby Myst. (1882) iii. 1075, I ded natt asend to my father In deyyte. |
2. a. concr. A divinity, a divine being, a god; one of the gods worshipped by a people or tribe.
| c 1374 Chaucer Troylus iv. 1515, I swere it yow, and ek on ech goddesse, On every nymphe, and deyte infernal. 1589 Greene Menaphon (Arb.) 42 That I helde a supersticious opinion of loue, in honouring him for a Deitie. 1607 Shakes. Cor. iv. vi. 91 A thing Made by some other Deity then Nature, That shapes man Better. 1641 Wilkins Math. Magick i. xi. (1648) 69 Temples or Tombes..dedicated to some of their Deities. 1794 Sullivan View Nat. II. 448 The chief deity, the sun. 1814 Cary Dante, Paradiso viii. 3 The fair Cyprian deity [Venus]. 1851 D. Wilson Preh. Ann. (1863) II. iii. ii. 71 The Altar appears to be dedicated to one of these obscure local deities. |
b. fig. An object of worship; a thing or person deified.
| 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. iv. iii. 74 This is the liuer veine, which makes flesh a deity. 1630 J. Taylor (Water P.) Wks. ii. 113/1 Tobacco (England's bainefull Diety). |
3. (with capital) A supreme being as creator of the universe; the Deity, the Supreme Being, God. (Especially as a term of Natural Theology, and without explicit predication of personality.)
| 1647 N. Bacon Disc. Laws Eng. i. iv. (1739) 10 They worship an invisible and an infinite Deity. 1690 Locke Hum. Und. i. iv. (1695) 30 A rational Creature, who will but seriously reflect on them, cannot miss the discovery of a Deity. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) I. 6 We see the greatness and wisdom of the Deity in all the seeming worlds that surround us. 1786 H. More Let. in Mem. Ld. Gambier (1861) I. x. 157 Polite ears are disgusted to hear their Maker called ‘the Lord’ in common talk, while serious ones think the fashionable appellation of ‘the Deity’ sounds extremely Pagan. 1812–6 J. Smith Panorama Sc. & Art I. 527 Newton..had recourse, for one of the forces, to the immediate action of the Deity. 1860 Pusey Min. Proph. 193 Men spoke of ‘the Deity’, as a sort of first cause of all things, and..had lost sight of the Personal God. |