Etymology of the Name God
Oddly, the exact history of the word God is unknown. The word God
is a relatively new European invention, which was never used in any of the
ancient Judaeo-Christian scripture manuscripts that were written in Hebrew,
Aramaic, Greek or Latin.
According to the best efforts of linguists and researchers, the root
of the present word God is the Sanskrit word hu
which means to call upon, invoke, implore.
Nonetheless, it is also interesting to note the similarity to the
ancient Persian word for God which is Khoda.
The following is a survey of some of the efforts of those who have been
trying to decipher the ancient roots of the word God:
Webster's 1913 Dictionary:
\God\ (g[o^]d), n. [AS. god; akin to OS. & D. god, OHG. got, G. gott, Icel.
gu[eth], go[eth], Sw. & Dan. gud, Goth. gup, prob. orig. a p. p. from a root
appearing in Skr. h[=u], p. p. h[=u]ta, to call upon, invoke, implore. [root]30.
Cf. {Goodbye}, {Gospel}, {Gossip}.]
http://www.hyperdictionary.com/dictionary/god
Catholic Encyclopedia:
Etymology of the Word "God"
(Anglo-Saxon God; German Gott;
akin to Persian khoda; Hindu khooda).
God can variously be defined as:
- the proper name of the one Supreme and Infinite Personal Being,
the Creator and Ruler of the universe, to whom man owes obedience
and worship;
- the common or generic name of the several supposed beings to
whom, in polytheistic religions, Divine attributes are ascribed and
Divine worship rendered;
- the name sometimes applied to an idol as the image or
dwelling-place of a god.
The root-meaning of the name (from Gothic root gheu; Sanskrit hub or
emu, "to invoke or to sacrifice to") is either "the one invoked" or "the
one sacrificed to." From different Indo-Germanic roots (div, "to shine"
or "give light"; thes in thessasthai "to implore") come the Indo-Iranian
deva, Sanskrit dyaus (gen. divas), Latin deus, Greek theos, Irish and
Gaelic dia, all of which are generic names; also Greek Zeus (gen. Dios,
Latin Jupiter (jovpater), Old Teutonic Tiu or Tiw (surviving in
Tuesday), Latin Janus, Diana, and other proper names of pagan deities.
The common name most widely used in Semitic occurs as 'el in Hebrew,
'ilu in Babylonian, 'ilah in Arabic, etc.; and though scholars are not
agreed on the point, the root-meaning most probably is "the strong or
mighty one."
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06608x.htm
Oxford English Dictionary:
"god (gρd). Also 3-4 godd. [Com.
Teut.: OE. god (masc. in sing.; pl.
godu, godo neut., godas masc.) corresponds to OFris.,
OS., Du.
god masc., OHG. got, cot (MHG. got, mod.Ger. gott)
masc., ON.
goð, guð neut. and masc., pl. goð, guð neut. (later
Icel. pl. guðir masc.; Sw., Da.
gud), Goth. guÞ
(masc. in sing.; pl. guÞa, guda neut.).
The Goth. and ON. words always follow the neuter declension, though when used in
the Christian sense they are syntactically masc. The OTeut. type is therefore *guđom
neut., the adoption of the masculine concord being presumably due to the
Christian use of the word. The neuter sb., in its original heathen use, would
answer rather to L. numen than to L.
deus. Another approximate equivalent of deus in OTeut. was *ansu-z
(Goth. in latinized pl. form anses, ON. ρss,
OE.
Ós- in personal names,
ésa genit. pl.); but this seems to have been applied only to the higher
deities of the native pantheon, never to foreign gods; and it never came into
Christian use.
The ulterior etymology is disputed. Apart from the unlikely
hypothesis of adoption from some foreign tongue, the OTeut. *gubom
implies as its pre-Teut. type either *ghudho-m or *ghutó-m.
The former does not appear to admit of explanation; but the latter would
represent the neut. of the passive pple. of a root *gheu-.
There are two Aryan roots of the required form (both *glheu,
with palatal aspirate): one meaning ‘to invoke’ (Skr. hū),
the other ‘to pour, to offer sacrifice’ (Skr. hu, Gr.
χέειν, OE. yéotan YETE
v.). Hence *glhutó-m has
been variously interpreted as ‘what is invoked’ (cf. Skr. puru-hūta
‘much-invoked’, an epithet of Indra) and as ‘what is worshipped by
sacrifice’ (cf. Skr. hutá, which occurs in the sense ‘sacrificed
to’ as well as in that of ‘offered in sacrifice’). Either of these
conjectures is fairly plausible, as they both yield a sense practically
coincident with the most obvious definition deducible from the actual
use of the word, ‘an object of worship’.
Some scholars, accepting the derivation from the root *glheu-
to pour, have supposed the etymological sense to be ‘molten image’ (=
Gr.
χυγόν), but the assumed
development of meaning seems very unlikely.
transcribed from The Oxford English Dictionary
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary:
god
\God\ (g[o^]d), n. [AS. god; akin to OS. & D. god, OHG. got, G. gott, Icel.
gu[eth], go[eth], Sw. & Dan. gud, Goth. gup, prob. orig. a p. p. from a root
appearing in Skr. h[=u], p. p. h[=u]ta, to call upon, invoke, implore. [root]30.
Cf. Goodbye, Gospel, Gossip.]
1. A being conceived of as possessing supernatural power, and to be propitiated
by sacrifice, worship, etc.; a divinity; a deity; an object of worship; an idol.
He maketh a god, and worshipeth it. --Is. xliv. 15.
The race of Israel . . . bowing lowly down To bestial gods. --Milton.
2. The Supreme Being; the eternal and infinite Spirit, the Creator, and the
Sovereign of the universe; Jehovah.
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=god
American Heritage Dictionary:
GOD
NOUN: 1. God a. A being conceived as the perfect, omnipotent, omniscient
originator and ruler of the universe, the principal object of faith and worship
in monotheistic religions. b. The force, effect, or a manifestation or aspect of
this being. 2. A being of supernatural powers or attributes, believed in and
worshiped by a people, especially a male deity thought to control some part of
nature or reality. 3. An image of a supernatural being; an idol. 4. One that is
worshiped, idealized, or followed: Money was their god. 5. A very handsome man.
6. A powerful ruler or despot.
ETYMOLOGY: Middle English, from Old English. See gheu(): in APPENDIX I
APPENDIX I: ENTRY: gheu()-
DEFINITION: To call, invoke. Oldest form *heu()-, becoming *gheu()- in centum
languages. Suffixed zero-grade form *ghu-to-, “the invoked,” god. a. god, from
Old English god, god; b. giddy, from Old English gydig, gidig, possessed,
insane, from Germanic *gud-iga-, possessed by a god; c. götterdämmerung, from
Old High German got, god. a–c all from Germanic *gudam, god. (Pokorny hau- 413.)
http://www.bartleby.com/61/21/G0172100.html
An Additional On-Line Reference:
Word origin: God - Our word god goes back via Germanic to
Indo-European, in which a corresponding ancestor form meant “invoked
one.” The word’s only surviving non-Germanic relative is Sanskrit
hu, invoke the gods, a form which appears in the Rig Veda, most ancient
of Hindu scriptures: puru-hutas, “much invoked,” epithet of
the rain-and-thunder god Indra.
(From READER’S DIGEST, Family Word Finder, page 351) (Originally
published by The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc., Pleasantville New
York, Montreal; Copyright 1975)
Now if the sources noted above are accurate, then the word that we use
for the Supreme Being, God, comes from a very pagan origin. Thus the
word god is used generically by many different religions to refer to their
deity or “invoked one.”
Some may laugh at the notion, the very idea that the word “God” has any
origin or association with Hindu Sanskrit. To illustrate how this is
possible, we again quote from ‘Family Word Finder’ on the historical
development of our Modern English language:
Page 7, ‘Word Origins’ - “English belongs to the Indo-European family
of languages, which consists of about 100 related tongues, all descended
from prehistoric language of a pastoral, bronze working, horse breeding
people, the Aryans, who inhabited the steppes of Central Asia about 4500
B.C. Scholars refer to their language at this stage as
proto-Indo-European, or simply Indo-European.
http://www.bibleanswerstand.org/God.htm
The Heart
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