Who came with the word 'God'

[Jukeball]

Any Theories?

[samclem]

:can’t resist::

Millions.

[MEBuckner]

Do you mean “What are the origins of the word ‘god’ in the English language?”

According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, the word god comes from the Indo-European root “gheu(*)-” (where the “*” denotes that upside-down “e” thingy), the basic meaning of which was “to call, invoke”; “god” thus being “the invoked”, or one called upon.

[KneadToKnow]

I don’t know, samclem, I’m more of a “Jeeeeeeeeeeeee-sus” person, myself.

[kniz]

Man first hit his thumb with a hammer?[list][list][list]

[JeffB]

*Originally posted by MEBuckner *
**Do you mean “What are the origins of the word ‘god’ in the English language?”

According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, the word god comes from the Indo-European root “gheu(*)-” (where the “*” denotes that upside-down “e” thingy), the basic meaning of which was “to call, invoke”; “god” thus being “the invoked”, or one called upon. **

The OED says “The ulterior etymology is disputed.” The explanation listed above is one of the possibilities. The other is the same root, but meaning “to pour, to offer sacrifice.” I would paste the entire section here, but it is pretty long, and it has all sorts of funky symbols. Here’s part:

Hence *ghutó-m [there’s a weird diamond thing between the “g” and “h”] has been variously interpreted as ‘what is invoked’ (cf. Skr. puru-huta ‘much-invoked’, an epithet of Indra) and as ‘what is worshipped by sacrifice’ (cf. Skr. hutá, which occurs in the sense ‘sacrificed to’ as well as in that of ‘offered in sacrifice’). Either of these conjectures is fairly plausible, as they both yield a sense practically coincident with the most obvious definition deducible from the actual use of the word, ‘an object of worship’.