Masculine

Attested from the 15th century, in the 14th in the compound götzenträger for "icon". In the 15th and 16th centuries a term for "cast image", and more generally for "image, likeness". In the 15th century used in the sense of "fool, stupid person", presumably influenced by Götz, a short form of the given name Gottfried. Grimm cites a folk song collected by Uhland (1881), based on a manuscript dated to 1603, where götze takes the meaning of kobold as evidence that this may have been the original sense. The meaning of "false god, idol" is due to Luther. Early usage in Luther is in the sense of "mask" or "mummer", especially of clerics as the "masks" of the pope, or the pope as "mask" of the devil; later, Luther moves away from this usage and begins using the word as a synonym of Abgott "false god".

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