doomsday

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English domesday, also domesdai and domes dei,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English dōmes dæg (“judgement day”),^{[2][5][4][6][7]} a compound of dōmes, the genitive of dōm (“judgement”) (modern doom), and dæg (“day”) (day).^[2][5][3][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The day of the Last Judgement: in the Old English Rushworth Gospels, at Matthew 10:15.^[4] Merriam-Webster dates the word to before the 12th century.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The phrase till doomsday, to the end of the world, for ever, is recorded from about 1175, in the Ormulum.^[4] From the 12th century the Middle English spelling Domesday was given to William the Conqueror's survey of England of 1086, popularly called so because it was a final authority from which there was no appeal;^[6][4][8][7] the OED records the name from 1178.^[4] In the 17th and 18th centuries doomsday was the usual spelling for the survey too.^[4][9] From 1578, in Lyly's Euphues, the word was also used of any day of judgement or trial, or of final dissolution.^[4] Johnson (1755) defined it as "the day of final and universal judgment; the last, the great day", quoting Shakespeare's Julius Caesar: "As it were doomsday".^[10] Etymonline notes that in medieval England doomsday was expected when the world reached 6,000 years from the creation, and that Bede, about 720, complained of country people asking him how many years of the sixth millennium remained.^[3] The doomsday machine, a hypothetical bomb able to destroy all life, is named from 1960,^[3][9] and the word is now used as a modifier for predictions of disaster.^[11]

Timeline

• Old English – the Day of Judgement, in the Rushworth Gospels.^[4]
• c. 1175 – till doomsday, for ever, in the Ormulum.^[4]
• 1178 – Domesday, the name of the survey of England of 1086.^[4][6]
• 1578 – any day of judgement or trial, or of final dissolution.^[4]
• 1960 – doomsday machine, a hypothetical world-destroying bomb.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (often capitalized) The day of the Last Judgment; Judgment Day.^[11][5][9]
2. Any day of final reckoning or decisive judgement.^[11][9][5]
3. till doomsday or until doomsday: for ever, to the end of the world.^[4][9][5]
4. (as a modifier) Predicting or bringing disaster or the end of the world: a doomsday cult.^[11][9]
5. (archaic) A day of death or dissolution.^[5][4]

Word family

• doomsdayer
• Domesday Book

Related words

• doom
• day
• Domesday

Usage notes

Etymonline notes that there is no evidence for the story of a general panic in Christian Europe as the year 1000 approached.^[3]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ 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 c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins