Etymograph

English

deity

Deity comes from Middle French deité ‘deity, god’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *dyew- ‘sky, heaven’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dyew-1‘sky, heaven’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*deywós2‘god’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*deiwos2‘god, deity’reconstructed
  4. Old Latinc. 700–75 BCEdeivos2
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdeus3‘god’
  6. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdeitās4‘divinity, deity, the nature of a god’
  7. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600deité4‘deity, god’
  8. Englishearliest quotation 1590deity4

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Proto-Indo-European *deywós
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Latin deus
  3. 3 Wiktionary, Latin deitas
  4. 4 Wiktionary, English deity
  5. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book III, Canto X: “Thou seest all, yet none at all sees thee:…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dyew-Wiktionary, Proto-Indo-European *deywós‘sky, heaven’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*deywósWiktionary, Latin deus‘god’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*deiwosWiktionary, Latin deus‘god, deity’reconstructed
  4. Old Latinc. 700–75 BCEdeivosWiktionary, Latin deus
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdeusWiktionary, Latin deitas‘god’
  6. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdeitāsWiktionary, English deity‘divinity, deity, the nature of a god’
  7. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600deitéWiktionary, English deity‘deity, god’
  8. Englishearliest quotation 1590deityWiktionary, English deity. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book III, Canto X: “Thou seest all, yet none at all sees thee:…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *dyew- ‘sky, heaven’

die, journal, journey, diary, dial, meridian, dev, sojourn, jovial, diurnal, deism, 28 more

through Proto-Indo-European *deywós ‘god’

div, deva, 15 more

through Proto-Italic *deiwos ‘god, deity’

diva, divinity, divination, diviner, 11 more

through Old Latin deivos

divine, 9 more

through Latin deus ‘god’

joss, deuce, deist, 9 more

Today it means

noun Synonym of divinity: the state, position, or fact of being a god.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “deity”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Proto-Indo-European *deywós, Latin deus, Latin deitas. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *dyew- / deity

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