-dom

Origin

From Middle English -dom, from Old English -dōm ("-dom: state, condition, power, dominion, authority, property, right, office, quality", suffix.), from Proto-Germanic *-dōmaz ("-dom"). Cognate with Scots -dom ("-dom"), West Frisian -dom ("-dom"), Dutch -dom ("-dom"), German -tum ("-dom"), Swedish -dom ("-dom"), Icelandic -dómur ("-dom"). Same as Old English dōm ("doom, judgment, sentence, condemnation, ordeal, judicial sentence, decree, ordinance, law, custom; justice, equity; direction, ruling, governing, command; might, power, dominion, supremacy, majesty, glory, magnificence, splendor, reputation, honor, praise, dignity, authority; state, condition"). More at doom.

Full definition of -dom

Suffix

1. Forming nouns denoting the condition or state of the suffixed word.
• 1995, Isabel Fonseca, Bury Me Standing, Vintage 2007, p. 74:there always seemed to be one outrageous beauty: an angel who would have been forced into indentured topmodeldom had she been found on a Paris bus; or a wavy-lipped, chisel-chinned, almond-eyed boy-warrior out of the Iliad, as beautiful as humans come.
• 2011, Caitlin Moran, The Times, 19 Mar 2011:It is only the English language that has let the cabbage down – giving it, quite frankly, the ugliest name in all of veg-dom.

Derived terms