thearchy

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek θεαρχία (thearkhía), from θεός (theós, “god”) + -αρχία (-arkhía, “rule, ruling”).

Noun

thearchy (countable and uncountable, plural thearchies)

1. A government ruled by God or a god; a theocracy.
   • 1643, Subject of Supremacie, 42:

     There ends Monarchy as a Thearchie, or divine dynastie.

   • 1643, Maximes Unfolded, 8:

     Thearchie, or Gods Government in Families, a Nation, and all Nations.

   • 1863, G.J. Whyte-Melville, Gladiators, I 254:

     [The Jew's] belief in that direct thearchy, to which he was bound by the ties of gratitude.

2. A system or ordering of deities. (Compare pantheon.)
   • 1852, P.J. Bailey, Festus, 11:

     From rank to rank in Thearchy divine, We angel raylets gladden in thy sight.

   • 1876, W.E. Gladstone, Homeric Synchronism, 245:

     Pan was one of the younger gods in the Hellenic thearchy.

   • 1899 Dec. 1, Literary Guide, 178 1:

     When Jesus entered upon his ministry, the Olympian thearchy […] was already tottering to its fall.

Related terms

• thearch (1)
• theocracy (1)
• hierarchy (2)

Anagrams

• hatchery