God

• n. 神；（大写首字母时）上帝
• vt. 膜拜，崇拜
• n. (God)人名；(索、阿拉伯)古德

词态变化

助记提示

中文词源

来自PIE*gheu, 涌出，倾泻，祭酒，词源同gush, gust. 即祭酒来召唤神灵。

英文词源

god

god: [OE] Similar in form though it may be, and appropriate as the semantic connection would be, god is not etymologically related to good. It probably comes from an Indo-European *ghut-. This may be related to Sanskrit havate and Old Church Slavonic zovetu, both meaning ‘call’, and if so the underlying etymological meaning of god would be ‘that which is invoked’. The English word’s immediate ancestor was prehistoric Germanic *guth-, which also produced German gott, Dutch god, and Swedish and Danish gud.

god (n.)

Old English god "supreme being, deity; the Christian God; image of a god; godlike person," from Proto-Germanic *guthan (cognates: Old Saxon, Old Frisian, Dutch god, Old High German got, German Gott, Old Norse guð, Gothic guþ), from PIE *ghut- "that which is invoked" (cognates: Old Church Slavonic zovo "to call," Sanskrit huta- "invoked," an epithet of Indra), from root *gheu(e)- "to call, invoke."

But some trace it to PIE *ghu-to- "poured," from root *gheu- "to pour, pour a libation" (source of Greek khein "to pour," also in the phrase khute gaia "poured earth," referring to a burial mound; see found (v.2)). "Given the Greek facts, the Germanic form may have referred in the first instance to the spirit immanent in a burial mound" [Watkins]. See also Zeus. In either case, not related to good.

Popular etymology has long derived God from good; but a comparison of the forms ... shows this to be an error. Moreover, the notion of goodness is not conspicuous in the heathen conception of deity, and in good itself the ethical sense is comparatively late. [Century Dictionary, 1902]

Originally a neuter noun in Germanic, the gender shifted to masculine after the coming of Christianity. Old English god probably was closer in sense to Latin numen. A better word to translate deus might have been Proto-Germanic *ansuz, but this was used only of the highest deities in the Germanic religion, and not of foreign gods, and it was never used of the Christian God. It survives in English mainly in the personal names beginning in Os-.

I want my lawyer, my tailor, my servants, even my wife to believe in God, because it means that I shall be cheated and robbed and cuckolded less often. ... If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him. [Voltaire]

God bless you after someone sneezes is credited to St. Gregory the Great, but the pagan Romans (Absit omen) and Greeks had similar customs. God's gift to _____ is by 1938. God of the gaps means "God considered solely as an explanation for anything not otherwise explained by science;" the exact phrase is from 1949, but the words and the idea have been around since 1894. God-forbids was rhyming slang for kids ("children"). God squad "evangelical organization" is 1969 U.S. student slang. God's acre "burial ground" imitates or partially translates German Gottesacker, where the second element means "field;" the phrase dates to 1610s in English but was noted as a Germanism as late as Longfellow.

How poore, how narrow, how impious a measure of God, is this, that he must doe, as thou wouldest doe, if thou wert God. [John Donne, sermon preached in St. Paul's Jan. 30, 1624/5]

双语例句

1. Thank God they're not on my manor any more.

谢天谢地，他们再也不在我的辖区里了。

来自柯林斯例句

2. They brought up their children to be God-fearing Christians.

他们将孩子培养成了虔诚的基督教徒。

来自柯林斯例句

3. The President described the disaster as an act of God.

总统将这场灾难说成是天灾。

来自柯林斯例句

4. I hope to God they are paying you well.

我真希望他们给你一份好的酬劳。

来自柯林斯例句

5. You have no right to play God in my life!

你无权对我的人生指手画脚！

来自柯林斯例句