Original Word: δεισιδαίμων, ον
Part of Speech: Adjective
Transliteration: deisidaimonesteros
Phonetic Spelling: (dice-ee-dahee-mon-es'-ter-os)
Short Definition: respectful of what is divine, religious
Definition: respectful of what is divine; religious, perhaps, rather than superstitious (the usual meaning).

1174 deisidaimonésteros (from deidō, "to dread" and daimōn, "a deity") – properly, religious (superstitious) fear, driven by a confused concept of God – producing "sincere" but very misdirected religion. Indeed, this is the mark of heathenism.

STRONGS NT 1174: δεισιδαίμων

δεισιδαίμων, δεισιδαιμον, genitive δεισιδαιμονος (δείδω to fear, and δαίμων deity), fearing the deity or deities, like the Latinreligiosus; used either

1. in a good sense, reverencing god or the gods, pious, religious: Xenophon, Cyril 3, 3, 58; Ages. 11, 8; Aristotle, pol. 5, 11 (p. 1315a, 1); or

2. in a bad sense, superstitious: Theophrastus, char. 16 (22); Diodorus 1, 62; 4, 51; Plutarch, de adul. c. 16; de superstit. c. 10f Paul in the opening of his address to the Athenians, Acts 17:22, calls them, with kindly ambiguity, κατά πάντα δεισιδαιμονεστέρους (namely, than the rest of the Greeks (Winer's Grammar, 244 (229)), cf. Meyer at the passage), as being devout without the knowledge of the true God; cf. Bengel at the passage.

devout, religious, superstitious.

The compound of a derivative of the base of deilos and daimon; more religious than others -- too superstitious.

see GREEK deilos

see GREEK daimon

δεισιδαιμονεστερους δεισιδαιμονεστέρους deisidaimonesterous deisidaimonestérousInterlinear Greek • Interlinear Hebrew • Strong's Numbers • Englishman's Greek Concordance • Englishman's Hebrew Concordance • Parallel Texts