$deity

noun

A generic deity; the listener's or reader's god of choice.

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Meanings

$deity1

noun$deity (plural $deities)

plural $deities

  1. alternativeAlternative form of $DEITY.

$DEITY2

noun$DEITY (plural $DEITIES)

plural $DEITIES · alternative $deity

  1. InternethumorousA generic deity; the listener's or reader's god of choice.

    Thank $DEITIES for Open Source!

    2015 March 30, Daniel James, “Re: [anti-topic] rant, idiots should probably avoid”, in comp.mobile.android (Usenet)
    2 more examples

    No real init that actually works the way it's supposed to. No snoop. No truss/strace. The whole stupid application install method with it's^([sic]) /opt /etc/opt/, /var/opt, /tmp/var/etc/opt $DEITY dammit!

    2000, Justin Warren, “Re: newbie learns an arcane command”, in alt.sysadmin.recovery (Usenet)

    For $DEITY's sake, stop `digesting' each other and advocate something useful!

    2000, 2:1, “Re: Malloy digest”, in comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy (Usenet)

Origin

From the syntax of environment variables in Unix shells, and the practice of putting paths to user's software of choice in generically named variables like EDITOR or PAGER.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

$deity. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/%24deity

MLA

“$deity.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/%24deity. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “$deity,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/%24deity.

Source: $deity on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.