A.Word.A.Day--deify

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The Magic of Words

Sep 21, 2010

This week's theme
Letter-words

This week's words
emanate
deify

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A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

Tomorrow (Wed, Sep 22) talk with Anu Garg on KUOW (94.9 FM), Seattle's National Public Radio station. 9-10am Pacific Time (GMT -8).
Call in numbers: 206-543-5869 or 800-289-5869. (See details).

deify or D-F-I

PRONUNCIATION:

(DEE-uh-fy)

MEANING:

verb tr.:
1. To make a god of.
2. To revere or idealize as a deity.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin deificare, from deus (god) + -ficare (to make), from facere (to make). Ultimately from the Indo-European root dyeu- (to shine) that is also the source of diva, divine, Jupiter, Jove, July, Zeus, and Sanskrit deva (god).

USAGE:

"India has given birth to so many reformers of organized religion that one wonders if it is a natural cycle: each of them shows common people the simple but neglected path to a personal faith, but they deify him into a divine status he never wanted, establishing an institution, and the circle begins all over again."
Ananda Lal; Spiritual Cycles; The Telegraph (Calcutta, India); Sep 11, 2010.

Explore "deify" in the Visual Thesaurus.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered. -Nelson Mandela, activist, South African president, Nobel laureate (b. 1918)

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