Etymologically
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kingdom

Etymology and origin of the English word kingdom

History Permalink
Confidence
Established
Formation
Compound
First attested
a. 1000
From
Old English cyningdōm via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Old English (cyningdōm)

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈkɪŋ.dəm/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English kingdom,[2][3] inherited from Old English cyningdōm (“kingship”),[4][5] from cyning “king” and -dōm, the suffix -dom.[4][2][3] It is cognate with Old Saxon kuningdōm, Middle Dutch koninghdom and Old Norse konungdómr.[4][6] The usual Old English word was cynedōm, and Middle English also had kingrick, whose second element is that of German Reich.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Kingly authority, sovereignty: before 1000 in the OED,[7] a sense obsolete since the late 17th century.[6]

Semantic evolution

A monarchical state is from before 1300,[7] and the territory subject to a king from about 1250.[7] The spiritual sovereignty of God or Christ, and its realm, are from before 1300,[7] and kingdom come, “the next world”, originally slang from 1785, is from the Lord's Prayer, where thy kingdom come is an archaic subjunctive.[4] A realm or sphere in which something prevails is from 1362.[7] One of the realms of nature, animal, vegetable and mineral, is from the 1690s.[4] The Kingdom has been a familiar name for Fife since 1710.[7]

Timeline

  • a. 1000 – kingship.[7]
  • c. 1250 – a king's territory.[7]
  • a. 1300 – a monarchy, and God's kingdom.[7]
  • 1362 – a realm or sphere.[7]
  • 1690s – a realm of nature.[4]
  • 1785 – kingdom come.[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A country or territory ruled by a king or queen.
  2. The eternal spiritual sovereignty of God or Christ, or its realm.
  3. A realm or sphere in which one thing is dominant: the kingdom of the imagination.
  4. In biology, one of the main divisions into which living things are classified, such as the animal and plant kingdoms.

Word family

  • subkingdom
  • underkingdom
  • hermit kingdom
  • kingdom come
  • United Kingdom

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Kingdom.” Etymologically, 15 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/kingdom. Accessed 15 Oct. 2026.

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