Episode Details

In this Adventure in Etymology we find out what links the word doom with words for judgement, courts and pride.

As a noun, doom [duːm] can mean:

• Destiny, especially terrible
• An undesirable fate
• Dread; a feeling of danger

As a verb, to doom can mean:

• To pronounce judgment or sentence on sb
• To condem
• To fix irrevocably the ill fate of sb

It comes from Middle English doom [doːm] (a judgement, [legal] decision, justice, authority), from Proto-West Germanic *dōm (judgement), from Proto-Germanic *dōmaz (judgement, fame, repute), from PIE *dʰóh₁mos (that which is put), from *dʰeh₁- (to do, put, place) [source].

English words from the same roots include deed, deem, defect and wisdom and other words ending in -dom [source].

Words in other languages from the same roots include doem (doom, condemnation, verdict, judgement) in Dutch, domare (judge, referee, umpire) in Swedish, domhus (courthouse) in Danish, дума (thought, meditation, duma [Russian legislature]) in Russian, duma (pride) in Polish, and dáil (tryst, betrothal, legislature) in Irish [source].

Incidentally, one word for court in Old English was dōmhūs (“judgement house”). It’s cognate with Danish domhus, and became dome-howse (a judgement hall) in Middle English [source].

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I also write about words, etymology and other language-related topics on the Omniglot Blog, and I explore etymological connections between Celtic languages on the Celtiadur blog.