The post read: "Our destiny as husband and wife ends here. I`m well. You take care, too." The 44-year-old pop diva also attached a smiling emoticon.

My comments:

Diva is Italian in origin, for the leading female singer of the opera. Diva means goddess. It has the same roots as deity and divine.

In fact, the male form of the word is divo, someone deified after death.

In Italian opera, divo still exists, being reserved for the biggest leading tenors of the opera.

However, it seems only “diva” crept into English (first known use 1883, according to Merriam-Webster.com) and remains popular in usage today.

Today, diva is used to mean any female leading performer in the opera, theatre, cinema or popular music, which is the case in our example.

In other words, she’s a superstar, who is brighter, bigger and more glamorous than most others.

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本文僅代表作者本人觀點，與本網立場無關。歡迎大家討論學術問題，尊重他人，禁止人身攻擊和發布一切違反國家現行法律法規的內容。

About the author:

Zhang Xin（張欣） has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.