El Shaddai

El Shaddai (Hebrew: אל שדי‎, IPA: [el ʃaˈdːaj]) is one of the names of the Only Judaic God. El Shaddai is conventionally translated as God Almighty but while the translation of El as "god" or "lord" in Ugarit/Canaanite language is straightforward, the literal meaning of Shaddai is the subject of debate.

Shaddai as a theonym

According to Exodus 6:2, 3, Shaddai (שַׁדַּי) is the name of God known to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The name Shaddai is again used as God's name later in the Book of Job.

Shaddai meaning destroyer

The root word "shadad" (שדד) means "to overpower" or "to destroy". This would give Shaddai the meaning of "destroyer", representing one of the aspects of God, and in this context it is essentially an epithet. The meaning of Shaddai may go back to the original sense of "shadad" which was "to be strong" akin to Arabic "shadiid" (شديد) "strong". The termination "ai", typically signifying the first person possessive plural, functions as a pluralis excellentiae like other titles for the Hebrew deity, Elohim ("gods") and Adonai ("my lords"). The possessive quality of the termination had lost its sense and become the lexical form of both Shaddai and Adonai, similar to how the connotation of the French word Monsieur changed from "my lord" to being an honorific title.