domineer

Etymology

It is apparently borrowed from Dutch domineren (“to rule, play the master; to feast”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} recorded in early modern Dutch from 1573, in Plantijn,^[2] from French dominer,^[2][3][5][7] from Latin dominor (“to rule, lord it over”),^[3][4][8] from dominus (“lord, master”), from domus (“house, home”),^[3] from Proto-Indo-European *dem- (“house, household”).^[3] The OED notes that the circumstances in which English took up the Dutch word are not known.^[2] The English ending follows the suffix -eer;^[7] Weekley compares commandeer and cashier, also from Dutch.^[9] It is related to dominate.^[4][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

To rule arbitrarily or despotically, to tyrannize: 1591, in a journal by T. Coningsby.^[2] Barnhart dates the word to 1588, in Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost,^[4] and Weekley also finds it first in that play;^[9] Etymonline notes that Shakespeare's use is not the earliest in English.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In the 1590s and 1600s the verb had several senses beside "to rule arbitrarily": to revel or feast riotously (1592–1691), after the Dutch sense "to feast luxuriously";^[2][3] to swagger or play the master (1607–1764);^[2][7] and to predominate or prevail (1602–1725).^[2][7] Shakespeare's "revel and domineer" in The Taming of the Shrew belongs to the first of these,^[7][10] and Johnson (1755) defined the verb as "to rule with insolence; to swell; to bluster".^[10] From 1694 it could be used of something tall towering over its surroundings; transitive use, to tyrannize over someone, dates from 1796.^[2] Etymonline dates the sense "to give orders in an arrogant, blustering manner" to 1764.^[3] The senses of revelling, swaggering and prevailing died out, and the modern verb, usually with over, means to assert authority in an overbearing way.^[2][11]

Timeline

• 1591 – to rule arbitrarily or despotically.^[2][12]
• 1592 – to revel, feast riotously (obsolete by 1691).^[2]
• 1602 – to predominate, prevail (obsolete by 1725).^[2]
• 1607 – to swagger, play the master (obsolete by 1764).^[2]
• 1694 – to tower over or above something.^[2]
• before 1768 – noun, a domineering manner.^[2]
• 1796 – transitive, to tyrannize over.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To rule or behave in an arrogant, tyrannical way; to bully or order others about, usually with over: He domineered over his younger brothers.^[11][12][2]
2. To tower over something, or rise above its surroundings.^[12][2][7]
3. (obsolete, 1592–1691) To revel or feast riotously.^[12][2]
4. (obsolete, 1607–1764) To swagger or play the master.^[12][2]

Noun

1. (rare) A domineering manner or air.^[12][2][7]

Related words

• dominate
• domineering
• dominion
• dominie
• dominant

Usage notes

Etymonline quotes the Century Dictionary on the distinction: domineering suggests that the person is unfit for or lacks the authority to rule, and behaves in an insulting or bullying way.^[3]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster