Deus

Deus (ˈd̪e.ʊs, ˈd̪ɛː.us) is the Latin word for "god" or "deity". Latin deus and dīvus ("divine") are in turn descended from Proto-Indo-European *deiwos, "celestial" or "shining", from the same root as *Dyēus, the reconstructed chief god of the Proto-Indo-European pantheon. In Classical Latin, deus (feminine dea) was a general noun referring to a deity, while in technical usage a divus or diva was a figure who had become divine, such as a divinized emperor. In Late Latin, Deus came to be used mostly for the Christian God. It was inherited by the Romance languages in Galician and Portuguese Deus, Catalan and Sardinian Déu, French and Occitan Dieu, Friulian and Sicilian Diu, Italian Dio, Spanish Dios and (for the Jewish God) Ladino דייו/דיו Dio/Dyo, etc., and by the Celtic languages in Welsh Duw and Irish Dia. While Latin deus can be translated as and bears superficial similarity to Greek θεός theós, meaning "god", these are false cognates. A true cognate is Ancient Greek Zeus, king of the Olympian gods in Greek mythology (Zeús, zděu̯s or dzěu̯s; Deús, děu̯s). In the archaic period, the initial Zeta would have been pronounced such that Attic Ζεύς would phonetically transliterate as Zdeús or Dzeús, from Proto-Hellenic *dzéus. By combining a form of deus with the Ancient Roman word for "father" (pater, ˈpa.t̪ɛr), one derives the name of the mythical Roman equivalent of Zeus: the sky god Diespiter (d̪iˈɛs.pɪ.t̪ɛr), later called Iuppiter or Jūpiter, from Proto-Italic *djous patēr, descended from Proto-Indo-European root DyḗwsPahtḗr literally meaning 'Sky Father'. From the same root is derived the Greek vocative "O father Zeus" (Zeû páter), and whence is also derived the name of the Hindu sky god Dyáuṣ Pitṛ́ (Vedic Sanskrit: , द्यौष्पितृ), and Proto-Germanic *Tīwaz or Tius hence Old Norse Týr. Latin Deus consistently translates Greek Θεός Theós in both the Vetus Latina and Jerome's Vulgate. In the Septuagint, Greek Theós in turn renders Hebrew Elohim (אֱלוֹהִים, אלהים), as in Genesis 1:1: Masoretic Text B'reshít bará Elohím et hashamáyim w'et haʾáretz.