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God

[god]
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noun

verb (used with object), god·ded, god·ding. (lowercase)

to regard or treat as a god; deify; idolize.

interjection

(used to express disappointment, disbelief, weariness, frustration, annoyance, or the like): God, do we have to listen to this nonsense?

Origin of God

before 900; Middle English, Old English; cognate with Dutch god, German Gott, Old Norse goth, Gothic guth
Related formsnon·god, nounsem·i·god, nounsub·god, nounun·der·god, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for semi-god

Historical Examples of semi-god

  • What a change had come over the brilliant hero—the semi-god!

  • He becomes a general mis-creator, who believes he is a semi-God.

    The "Genius"

    Theodore Dreiser

British Dictionary definitions for semi-god

god

noun

a supernatural being, who is worshipped as the controller of some part of the universe or some aspect of life in the world or is the personification of some forceRelated adjective: divine
an image, idol, or symbolic representation of such a deity
any person or thing to which excessive attention is givenmoney was his god
a man who has qualities regarded as making him superior to other men
(in plural) the gallery of a theatre

Word Origin for god

Old English god; related to Old Norse goth, Old High German got, Old Irish guth voice

God

noun

theol the sole Supreme Being, eternal, spiritual, and transcendent, who is the Creator and ruler of all and is infinite in all attributes; the object of worship in monotheistic religions
play God to behave in an imperious or superior manner

interjection

an oath or exclamation used to indicate surprise, annoyance, etc (and in such expressions as My God! or God Almighty!)
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for semi-god

god

n.

Old English god "supreme being, deity; the Christian God; image of a god; godlike person," from Proto-Germanic *guthan (cf. Old Saxon, Old Frisian, Dutch god, Old High German got, German Gott, Old Norse guð, Gothic guþ), from PIE *ghut- "that which is invoked" (cf. 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]. Cf. also Zeus.

Not related to good. 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.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Idioms and Phrases with semi-god

God

In addition to the idioms beginning with god

  • God forbid
  • God knows

also see:

  • act of god
  • for god's sake
  • honest to god
  • lap of the gods
  • mills of gods grind slowly
  • my god
  • put the fear of god in
  • so help me (god)
  • thank god
  • there but for the grace of god
  • tin god
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.