What does the word "god" mean?

Early man possessed extensive knowledge of the sky and clouds, the plants and animals, the rocks, springs, and rivers, among which he lived. He derived from his senses much factual information about nature around him, which enabled him to cope effectively with the external world. Very soon in his social evolution, however, perhaps at the time of becoming Homo sapiens, he began to search for a reality different in kind from that which he could see, touch, hear, smell or otherwise apprehend directly. His awareness of the external world came to transcend his concrete experiences of the objects and creatures he dealt with—as if he perceived in them a form of existence deeper than that revealed by outward appearance. He imagined, though probably not consciously, a Thing behind or within the thing, Force responsible for the visible movement. This immaterial Thing or Force he regarded as a god—calling it by whatever name he used to denote the principle he thought to be hidden within external reality. Even in modern times, the people of tribes that have remained in a Stone Age culture imagine deities everywhere around them and tend to regard gods and goddesses as more real than concrete objects and creatures. The conceptual environment of primitive man commonly affects his life more profoundly than his external environment. And this is also true of modern man.


René Dubos from "A God Within"