demiurge
/ˈdɛm.i.ɚd͡ʒ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.07 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A (usually jealous or outright malevolent) being who is inferior to the supreme being, and sometimes seen as the creator of evil.
noun
Something (such as an idea, individual or institution) conceived as an autonomous creative force or decisive power.
noun
The title of a magistrate in a number of states of Ancient Greece, and in the city states (poleis) of the Achaean League.
name
The subordinate being that fashions the perceptible world in the light of eternal ideas.
name
A prideful, inferior being that creates the material world; frequently identified with the creator God of the Hebrew Bible.
Example Sentences
- "A demiurge or craftsman god takes pre-existing matter and fashions it in light of the eternal Forms."
- "[T]he demiurgus is father, and power and intellect. And he possesses these things as much as possible on account of intelligibles. For he is a God as father, on account of them. He is also power, and the generator of wholes, and knows beings intellectually, on account of them. For in them intelligible knowledge first subsists. Much more therefore are father, power and intellect in intelligibles; from which also the demiurgus being filled, participates of this triad."
- "The universe, he [Plato] proposes, is the product of rational, purposive, and beneficent agency. It is the handiwork of a divine Craftsman ("Demiurge," dêmiourgos, 28a6), who, imitating an unchanging and eternal model, imposes mathematical order on a preexistent chaos to generate the ordered universe (kosmos)."
- "The Gnostic Demiurge then assumes a surprising likeness to Ahriman, the evil counter-creator of Ormuzd in Mazdean philosophy. The character of the Gnostic Demiurge became still more complicated when in some systems he was identified with Jehovah, the God of the Jews or of the Old Testament, and was brought in opposition to Christ of the New Testament, the Only-Begotten Son of the Supreme and Good God."
- "This was the earnest attempt of a Christian to explain in some detail how God might act using natural law, although his critics noted that such a Creator had more in common with a gnostic demiurge than the transcendent God of the Judeo-Christian tradition."
- "Common to all authentic Gnostic schools are teachings on the demiurgos and archons. However, exactly what the demiurgos and archons are in the symbolic and mystical language of the various Gnostic traditions can be very different from one tradition to another. The word demiurgos means "creator of the world," "false creator," or "false god." Archons mean "rulers" and indicate spiritual or cosmic forces associated with the demiurgos. […] [S]ome schools view the demiurgos quite literally as the God of the Old Testament, while others do not view Yahweh as the demiurgos at all."
Etymology
From Ancient Greek δημιουργός (dēmiourgós, “one who works for the people; a skilled workman, a handicraftsman”) (whence Latin dēmiūrgus, French démiurge), from δήμιος (dḗmios, “belonging to the people, public”) (from δῆμος (dêmos, “the people”), from Proto-Indo-European *deh₂mos (“people”), from *deh₂- (“to divide”) + Ancient Greek -ιος (-ios), from Proto-Indo-European *-yós (suffix creating an adjective from a noun)) + Ancient Greek -ουργός (-ourgós, “worker”) (from ἔργον (érgon, “labour; task; work”), from Proto-Indo-European *wérǵom (“work”)). No relation with English demi- (as in demigod).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈdɛm.i.ɚd͡ʒ/
- British English: /ˈdɛm.i.ɜːd͡ʒ/
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Religion.