# Goddess



## Megami_21

My screen-name means Goddess in Japanese, I would like to know what it is in other languages.


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## elroy

Arabic: *إلهة* (pronounced _ilaaha_)

Welcome to the forums.


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## Megami_21

Thanks! That sounds really pretty!


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## raspberry_tea

HI!!!

In Filipino: Diyosa (dee-yoh-sah)


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## Chriszinho85

In Portuguese, it would be "deusa."


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## moira

Catalan: *deesa*


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## jester.

In German it is 'Göttin'.


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## Robinvn

Dutch: godin
French: déesse


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## Whodunit

In *Latin* it's "Dea". If you want to use it as general word it's usually lower-cased.


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## Henryk

"Dea" is also Italian. "Diosa" is it in Spanish.


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## Chaska Ñawi

I'm suddenly wondering where Medusa's name came from!

In Bolivian Quechua, the word for goddess is "mama".  This also means "mother", but I'm not certain whether this sense of the word was originally attached to "mama", or whether it was borrowed from the Spanish.


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## Honour

in turkish it is Tanrıça (ça is read as cha)


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## Samaruc

moira said:
			
		

> Catalan: *deesa*



Sorry for correcting, but the right spelling in Catalan is with a double S: *DEESSA*.

And you could also simply say: *DEA*, which is also correct in Catalan.


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## CatStar

Hello Megami,
In Irish it's bandia 
(bean - woman, dia - god) 
Slán go fóill,
Caitríona


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## LaSmarjeZ

Danish = Gudinde


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## Pivra

In Thai...

Devi.....means goddess
Devdhita... means female angel


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## Megami_21

Wow!! Thanks everyone! Those were a lot of neat languages you gave me!


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## amikama

Hebrew: *אלה* (_ela_)


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## test0012

Chinese and Japanese: 女神 (lit. female god)


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## macta123

In Hindi

 Devi


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## Carl. F.

In Swedish: gudinna


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## AkErBeLtZ

In Basque: Jainkosa


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## Qcumber

The Tagalogs (Philippines) had no specific term for "goddess" because there is no grammatical gender in their language. They used the epicene term *aníto *for all spirits, and *bathálà* [bat'ha:la?] for their supreme spirit, i.e. God, this term being borrowed from Sanskrit and meaning "lord". 

Reading the fragments of their mythology as reported by Spanish chroniclers, it is nearly impossible to decide whether a spirit or God is masculine or feminine.

As all the statuettes representing spirits were destroyed by Spanish priests, we cannot resort to them to determine the spirits' natural genders if they had any, which is not certain.

The Spaniards introduced the term _dios_ > _*diyós*_ "god" > _*Diyós*_ "God (the supreme God of the Bible)", and its feminine _diosa_ > Tag. *diyósa *to refer, for instance, to female Greek deities. 

These, along with other Spanish terms that are gender marked, introduced the concept of grammatical gender in the Tagalog language, and have had a marked influence on it.


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## karuna

In Latvian it will be _Dieviete. _Another, more poetic word is _Dieve._


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## barbiegood

In Hungarian: Istennő 
"Isten" - God and "nő" - woman


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## halfminded

In Estonian----- *jumalanna***


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## Eva Maria

In ancient Greek:  qha ("zeá")


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## Hakro

*Finnish:
*God = jumala
Goddess = jumalatar

The ending _-tar_ can be used in many contexts (profession, nationality etc.) for a female person.


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## .Lola.

Czech: bohyně
Slovak: bohyňa
Hebrew: אלה (ela)


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## AkErBeLtZ

Hakro said:


> *Finnish:*
> The ending _-tar_ can be used in many contexts (profession, nationality etc.) for a female person.


How interesting! In Basque, we use the same ending for nationalities: -(t)ar.


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## ramen

test0012 said:


> Chinese and Japanese: 女神 (lit. female god)


 
Same in Korean, but is spelt 여신 and romanised as 'yŏ-shin'.


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## dn88

*Polish:*

goddess = bogini


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## Trisia

Romanian: 

god: zeu
goddess: zeiţă

(yeah, they look weird, and the pronounciation is worse )


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## min300

In Persian we say ' Elahe'.


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## Qcumber

Trisia said:


> Romanian: god: zeu, goddess: zeiţă
> (yeah, they look weird, and the pronounciation is worse )


They don't look weird at all! Rom. _*zeu*_ is very close to Lat. *deus*.
The interesting point is the suffix _*-ţă*_ for the feminine.


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## deine

In Lithuanian: deivė


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## mae

In basque is _jainkosa._


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## federicoft

In Italian: _dea._


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## Nizo

In *Esperanto*, it's _diino_.


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## chicagriega

In Greek is Θεά( Thea)


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## kusurija

deine said:


> In Lithuanian: deivė


_Also_ dievaitė.


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## Kanes

In Bulgarian: богиня (boginia)


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## jana.bo99

Hi,

I was looking for the word: Goddess in all languages, because my christian name means that. I have found this Topic.

Goddess:

Croatian: Božica

Slovenian: Boginja

jana.bo


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## rusita preciosa

Kanes said:


> In Bulgarian: богиня (boginia)


Same in Russian (both spelling and pronounciation)


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## stupoh

In Indonesian:
Dewi (borrowed from Sanskrit I think)

there's also male version: Dewa


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## ThomasK

So generally the female form is derived from the masculine form, so it seems, except in some languages like Tagalog, where there is no grammatical gender (and/ or where gods do not seem to have a gender/ sex). Has anyone noticed another exception? 

Reminds me of the _malika_ thread: we also say that the sex of the angels is a mystery...


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## Angelo di fuoco

Qcumber said:


> They don't look weird at all! Rom. _*zeu*_ is very close to Lat. *deus*.
> The interesting point is the suffix _*-ţă*_ for the feminine.



Suppose the feminine suffix is a Slavic borrowing.


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## Awwal12

> Suppose the feminine suffix is a Slavic borrowing.


Only if it comes from Bulgarian - but I seriously doubt. And I cannot remind any feminine suffix "-ta" in other Slavic languages (in Bulgarian it is obviously a remnant of the demonstrative pronoun that was turned into the definite suffix).


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## Frank78

In German: "Göttin"

Definatly derived from the male form "Gott".
Although the Christian god is a neuter we use the male form for "him/her/it" (who knows).


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## Angelo di fuoco

Awwal12 said:


> Only if it comes from Bulgarian - but I seriously doubt. And I cannot remind any feminine suffix "-ta" in other Slavic languages (in Bulgarian it is obviously a remnant of the demonstrative pronoun that was turned into the definite suffix).



It's not read "ta", but "tsa": "ца".


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## Awwal12

Angelo di fuoco said:


> It's not read "ta", but "tsa": "ца".


Hm... In this case, it is probable. Historically, the contact between Slavic and Romance populations was very tight in Eastern Europe.


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