*dhēs-, Proto-Indo-European root forming words for religious concepts. Possibly an extension of PIE root *dhe- "to set, put."

It forms all or part of: apotheosis; atheism; atheous; Dorothy; enthusiasm; fair (n.) "a stated market in a town or city;" fanatic; ferial; feast; fedora; -fest; festal; festival; festive; festoon; Festus; fete; fiesta; henotheism; monotheism; pantheism; pantheon; polytheism; profane; profanity; Thea; -theism; theist; theo-; theocracy; theodicy; Theodore; Theodosia; theogony; theology; theophany; Theophilus; theosophy; theurgy; tiffany; Timothy.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Greek theos "god;" Latin feriae "holidays," festus "festive," fanum "temple."

word-forming element making nouns implying a practice, system, doctrine, etc., from French -isme or directly from Latin -isma, -ismus (source also of Italian, Spanish -ismo, Dutch, German -ismus), from Greek -ismos, noun ending signifying the practice or teaching of a thing, from the stem of verbs in -izein, a verb-forming element denoting the doing of the noun or adjective to which it is attached. For distinction of use, see -ity. The related Greek suffix -isma(t)- affects some forms.

"worship of strange gods," 1650s, from allo- "other" + -theism.

"self-deification," 1610s, from auto- + -theism. The religion of one who mistakes his own inner voices for God's voice in him. Also used in a theological sense (1580s) for "the regarding of the second person of the Trinity as God entire." Related: Autotheist; autotheistic.

also bitheism, "belief in two gods" (typically a good and an evil one), 1857, from bi- "two" + -theism.

"belief in the existence of two supreme gods, religious dualism," 1670s, from di- (1) + -theism. Related: Ditheist; ditheistic.

"deification of the self," 1855, from ego + -theism. Related: Egotheist (1849); egotheistic.

"devotion to a single god without asserting that he or she is the only god," 1860, from Greek henos (neuter of heis "one;" from PIE root *sem- (1) "one; as one, together with") + -theism. Coined by (Friedrich) Max Müller (1823-1900), professor of comparative philology at Oxford. Supposedly a characteristic of the oldest Hindu religion; or a system between monotheism and polytheism. Related: Henotheist; henotheistic.

"a form of polytheism characteristic of the Vedic religion, in which one god at a time is considered supreme," 1865, coined in German by Max Müller from Greek kath' hena "one by one" (from kata- "according to" + en- "one") + -theism. Müller also coined the nearly synonymous henotheism (1860, from Greek henos "one") for "faith in a single god" as distinguished from exclusive belief in only one god, in writings on early Hebrew religion. He also has adevism (from Sanskrit deva "god") for "disbelief in the old gods and legends").

"hatred of God," 1846, from Latinized form of Greek misothios; see miso- + -theism. Related: Misotheist; misotheistic.