demigod

Picture a mythological family tree with one branch reaching upward toward the heavens and the other stopping halfway: that is the literal architecture of “demigod.” English assembled it in the 1520s from French demi, “half,” and god, following the Latin model semideus; the Roman poet Ovid may have coined that Latin form for lesser divine beings such as dryads. The word god itself is older and much murkier: Old English god came from Proto-Germanic *guthan, perhaps meaning “the one invoked,” though another theory connects it with pouring a libation to a deity. Either way, god is not related to good—a tempting folk explanation, but a historical mirage. Later heroes such as Hercules, Perseus, and Prometheus made demigod vivid: not quite human, not quite immortal, but powerful enough to make ordinary people look like spectators at a cosmic sporting event.