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A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) translated the Sanskrit word "deva" as "demigod" in his literature when the term referred to a God other than the Supreme Lord.

Source: Wikipedia | Demigod

The word Demigod first emerged from the west and Swami Prabhupada was the first to adopt this name for his Sanskrit to English translation. So according to Wikipedia he used this word to refer deva as demigod, but how could one use that word in this way because deva simply means a complete god, while demigod is half human and half god (something like Arjuna, Bhima or Yudishtira who are generally not considered as Hindu gods or devas).

It is quite confusing. Any answers?

Saharsh
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    Yes in that sense the word is wrongly used. The word demigod was used to translate Deva because to create a difference between Deva and Brahman. If Deva were to be translated as God, then that would give a possibility of equating Deva with Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu, which was not desired. Hence to differentite Brahman from Deva, some Swamiji's have translated that way. It is not to be taken that the Devas are half human and half God, but rather that they are 'Devas'. There is really no proper translation that I know of for Devas other than 'Devas'. All the best :) !! – Sai Mar 11 '15 at 15:10
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    But this is not unique to this word. Plenty of words in sanskrit really have no proper translation in English. For example, Dharma is translated partially as 'religion', 'righteousness', 'duty' etc. But really dharma can only mean nothing else but dharma too – Sai Mar 11 '15 at 15:14
  • This isn't really a good question for the site, because different people have different views on how the term Deva should be translated. For instance, I think it's perfectly fine to translate Devas as gods; see my answer here: http://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/445/36 – Keshav Srinivasan Mar 13 '15 at 16:00
  • @KeshavSrinivasan In my question neither do I need to know "how much god does we worship" nor "what is chit or achit". I am still left behind alone with my answer. – Saharsh Mar 13 '15 at 16:14
  • Also with neither of any dimension of my view this question seems to be a duplicate of above-mentioned link. I hope you're understanding my question clearly or you are really unclear with it? – Saharsh Mar 13 '15 at 16:16
  • I do understand your question. You're asking whether demigod is an appropriate translation of the word Deva. And I'm saying that that's not a good question for the site, because different people have different views on how best to translate Deva. – Keshav Srinivasan Mar 13 '15 at 16:31
  • @KeshavSrinivasan So why don't we simply welcome the views. That's why this site was proposed to Area 51, Isn't it? Seems you forgot the motive behind this. – Saharsh Mar 13 '15 at 16:38
  • @Alpha Hinduism.SE is not meant to be an opinion-based free-for-all. It's supposed to be a site where people can ask and answer factual questions about the Hindu religion, not simply spout off their own opinion. Opinion and discussion is what forums are for. This site is about creating a knowledge-base concerning Hinduism. – Keshav Srinivasan Mar 13 '15 at 16:42
  • @KeshavSrinivasan I think this issue could be a very active topic regarding the meta discussion. Is there any specification on meta site which decides the quality of a question or say like what type of site this is and what should user ask? – Saharsh Mar 13 '15 at 16:48

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