Godhead

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈɡɒd.hɛd/

Definitions

1. The essence or nature of a deity, characterized by ultimate authority and divinity, often regarded as the unified source of divine power and attributes
2. This term refers to the divine essence that embodies supreme power and authority, representing the unified characteristics of a deity
3. The inherent divine quality or essence that defines a supreme being or deity

Etymology: "Godhead" is one of those words that looks like a compound you could build on the spot, and in a sense it is: "god" joined to the suffix "-head," which in Old English meant a state, condition or quality, the same element found in "childhood" and "manhood." Its first recorded appearance in English comes around 1225 in the "Ancrene Wisse," a devotional guide written for anchoresses, women who had withdrawn from the world to live as religious recluses. The word had a Middle English form, "godhede," before settling into its modern spelling. The suffix has a sibling that matters here. "Godhood" is a doublet of "godhead," meaning the two words came from the same source but reached modern English along different routes and were kept as separate words. Scholars link the pattern to parallel formations in other Germanic languages, such as Dutch "godheid" and German "Gottheit," which show the same construction of god plus a state-marker.

Synonyms: deity, divinity, godhood