godship

English

Etymology

From god +‎ -ship.

Noun

godship (usually uncountable, plural godships)

1. (humorous, with 'his', 'her', 'your', &c.) A term of address to a deity.
   • 1533, Thomas Heywood, The Play of the Wether, sig. Bii:

     Yf it please your gracyous godshyp.

   • 1994, Dustin Griffin, Satire, p. 86:

     The gods, addressed without ceremony in Juvenal as vos... become ‘Your Godships’.

2. Synonym of divinity: the state, position, or fact of being a god.
   • 1592, Lancelot Andrewes, Wonderfull Combate, vi, f. 78v:

     Because there was a Godship, a higher degree than hers, she was not content.

   • 2003 August 4, New Yorker, p. 79:

     Emerson's vision of man coming into his godship through the conquest of nature reads suspiciously like an apology for westward expansion.

Anagrams

• dogship