goddess-shipn.
/ˈɡɒdᵻsʃɪp/, /ˈɡɒdɛsʃɪp/, U.S. /ˈɡɑdəsˌʃɪp/ 1. With possessive adjective. As a (mock) title of respect or (humorous) form of address for a woman or (Mythology) a goddess, as her (your, etc.) goddess-ship. Now rare.
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1610 J. Healey tr. St. Augustine Citie of God ii. v. 58 To please her goddesse-shippe [L. ut talibus dea sacris propitiaretur].
a1704 T. Brown Declam. Praise Wealth in Wks. (1707) I. i. 122 Zeal for your Goddess ships Honour.
1767 P. Gibbes Woman of Fashion I. xvii. 143 What a Chace has her Goddessship led me!
1831 T. Moore Summer Fête 323 And, lo, how pleased..Her Goddess-ship approves the air.
1833 New Monthly Mag. 38 179 Her Goddess-ship's qualities and attributes.
1880 Bangor (Maine) Daily Whig & Courier 8 Nov. Being an every-day piece of humanity, her goddess-ship scorns me.
1913 Scribner's Mag. Sept. 356/2 Imagine the sums which have been paid for..pamphlets about her goddessship.
2. The state or position of being a goddess; = goddesshood n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > deity > [noun] > goddess > nature of
goddesshood1644
goddess-ship1675
1675 J. Crowne Calisto v. 70 Go exercise your Goddesship above.
1818 Ld. Byron Childe Harold: Canto IV li. 28 In all thy perfect goddess-ship, when lies Before thee thy own vanquish'd Lord of War?
1954 ELH 21 34 But the poet..may find it good strategy..to qualify goddess-ship by emphasizing finite, human qualities.
2005 Press & Jrnl. (Aberdeen) (Nexis) 20 Aug. 18 There is also, of course, the small matter of making you look on the verge of goddess-ship.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2014; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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