duma

Etymology

It is borrowed from Russian дума (duma, “thought; council, assembly”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} In Old Russian the word meant "thought, intent" from the 12th century, then advice or council, and in particular the council of a ruling prince (13th century); it later named the highest legislative and executive body of the Tsardom of Russia (16th century), local councils (18th century), the national assembly of the Russian Empire (1905), and since 1993 the lower house of the Russian Federation's parliament and regional assemblies.^[2] Dictionary.com treats the Old Russian word for an assembly as an early homonym of the word for "thought".^[6] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Slavic *duma (“breath, spirit; word; mind, thought; advice”).^[1] Its further origin is disputed.^[2][3] Etymonline, Merriam-Webster, the American Heritage Dictionary, Klein and Dictionary.com take it to be of Germanic origin, comparing Gothic 𐌳𐍉𐌼𐍃 (dōms, “judgment”), related to doom and deem.^{[3][4][5][7][6]} The OED instead calls it probably a derivative of the Slavonic base of an Old Russian verb meaning "to think, to deliberate, to confer", perhaps from the same base as the Russian word for "spirit" seen in Doukhobor.^[2] Weekley also derives it from the verb meaning "to think", and notes that some scholars hold it cognate with doom.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The elected council of a Russian city or town: 1807, in a translation printed in The Times.^[2] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster date the word to 1870, also of city councils,^[3][4] and Dictionary.com to 1865–70.^[6]

Semantic evolution

English first used the word of Russian city and regional councils.^[2][3] From 1870 historians also applied it to the council of boyars that advised the prince or tsar.^[2] The national Duma set up by a decree of Tsar Nicholas II in 1905 and overthrown by the Bolsheviks in 1917 made the word widely known;^[2][9][3] Weekley notes that its full name meant "imperial council".^[8] Since 1993 the Duma, in full the State Duma, has been the lower house of the parliament of the Russian Federation.^[2][9][4]

Timeline

• 1807 – an elected city or regional council in Russia.^[2] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster date this sense 1870.^[3][4]
• 1870 – historically, the council of boyars advising the prince or tsar.^[2]
• 1905 – the national legislative assembly of the Russian Empire.^[2][9][3]
• 1993 – the lower house of the parliament of the Russian Federation.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Usually the Duma: the lower house of the parliament of the Russian Federation, in full the State Duma.^[9][4][2]
2. (historical) The elected legislative assembly of Russia from 1906 to 1917, set up by Tsar Nicholas II.^[4][9][2]
3. A representative council in Russia, especially of a city or region: the city duma voted on the budget.^[4][2][10]
4. (historical) A council of boyars that advised the prince or tsar.^[2]

Related words

• doom
• deem

Usage notes

The word is often capitalized, and is less commonly spelled douma.^[4][9]

References

1. ^ a b c 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press