doom

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English dom, inherited from Old English dōm (“law, judgement, condemnation”),^[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *dōmaz,^[3][5][6] whose other descendants include Old Frisian dōm and Old Saxon dōm (“statute, judgement”), Old High German tuom, Old Norse dómr (“judgement, decree”) and Gothic 𐌳𐍉𐌼𐍃 (dōms, “discernment, fame”).^[4][3][7] The Germanic noun is built on the base of do, "to put, place", so that it meant literally "that which is set up", a statute.^[8][7][9] Kroonen derives it from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to put”), and Barnhart and Klein compare Ancient Greek θωμός (thōmós, “heap”) and Sanskrit धामन् (dhā́man, “abode, law”);^[5][3][10] Etymonline calls the PIE connection only probable.^[4] The OED compares the parallel development of Ancient Greek θέμις (thémis, “law”) and Latin statūtum (“statute”).^[8][11] The verb, recorded in the late 14th century according to Etymonline and in 1503 according to the OED, was made from the noun; the Old English verb from the same source is deem.^[4][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Old English, a statute, law or decree, recorded in the Vespasian Psalter, and a judgement or sentence, in the Old English translation of Bede.^[8] Barnhart dates the Old English word to about 725.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Old English dōm covered law, judgement in court, a sentence, justice, and the power to judge;^[8][12] the compound dōmesdæg gave doomsday, whose early spelling survives in Domesday Book.^[9][12] Because a judgement was so often a condemnation, the word came to mean the sentence one could not escape, and by about 1400 one's fate, usually an unhappy one.^[8][9] Shakespeare's Sonnets (1609) show the further step to final ruin or death.^[8] Meanwhile the senses of law, justice and authority died out or became historical,^[8] and Johnson (1755) still put "judicial sentence" first among its meanings.^[13] The Doom was also the Last Judgement and a painting of it, now mainly in the phrase crack of doom.^[8] The verb, first "to judge", took on "to condemn" in Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus (1594) and "to destine to an ill fate" in Hamlet (1603).^[8]

Timeline

• c. 725 – Old English dōm, law, judgement.^[3]
• Old English – a statute or decree; a judicial sentence; justice; power to judge.^[8]
• c. 1200 – the Last Judgement.^[8]
• c. 1386 – personal judgement or opinion, in Chaucer (obsolete after 1624).^[8]
• c. 1400 – fate, usually an evil one.^[8]
• late 14th century – the verb, to judge; the OED's first example is from c. 1503.^[4][8]
• 1594 – verb, to condemn, in Shakespeare.^[8]
• 1603 – verb, to destine to a bad fate, in Shakespeare.^[8]
• 1609 – final ruin or death.^[8]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. death, ruin or some other terrible fate that cannot be avoided: The rebels marched to their doom.
2. (archaic) A judgement or sentence, especially an unfavourable one.
3. (archaic) The Last Judgement, or a painting of it.
4. (historical) A law, statute or decree.

Verb

1. To make certain that someone or something will fail, die or suffer: A lack of money doomed the project from the start.
2. (archaic) To pronounce judgement against; to condemn.

Word family

• doomy
• doomsman
• doomful
• doomsayer
• doomsday
• doomster
• gloom and doom

Related words

• deem
• -dom
• do
• kingdom
• theme
• thesis

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
6. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.