thearchy
English edit
Etymology edit
From Ancient Greek θεαρχία (thearkhía), from θεός (theós, “god”) + -αρχία (-arkhía, “rule, ruling”).[1] By surface analysis, the- + -archy.
Noun edit
thearchy (countable and uncountable, plural thearchies)
- A government ruled by God or a god; a theocracy.
- 1643, Subject of Supremacie, section 42:
- There ends Monarchy as a Thearchie, or divine dynastie.
- 1643, Maximes Unfolded, section 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.
- A system or ordering of deities. (Compare pantheon.)
- 1852, P.J. Bailey, Festus, section 11:
- From rank to rank in Thearchy divine, We angel raylets gladden in thy sight.
- 1876, W.E. Gladstone, Homeric Synchronism, section 245:
- Pan was one of the younger gods in the Hellenic thearchy.
- 1899 December 1, Literary Guide, 178 1:
- When Jesus entered upon his ministry, the Olympian thearchy […] was already tottering to its fall.
Related terms edit
References edit
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary. "Thearchy, n."