See also: Dominus

English edit

Etymology edit

Borrowed from Latin dominus (master). Doublet of dan, dom, domine, dominie, and don.

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

dominus (plural domini)

  1. master; sir; a title of respect formerly applied to a knight or clergyman, and sometimes to the lord of a manor or an academic master
    • January 1848, The New Sporting Magazine, volume 15, page 23:
      The vesper bell had rung its parting note; the domini were mostly caged in comfortable quarters, discussing the merits of old port; and the merry student had closed his oak, to consecrate the night to friendship, sack, and claret.

Related terms edit

Further reading edit

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “dominus”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams edit

Esperanto edit

Pronunciation edit

Verb edit

dominus

  1. conditional of domini

Latin edit

Etymology edit

In either case, likely further related to domus, from Proto-Italic *domos, from Proto-Indo-European *dem- (to build).

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

dominus m (genitive dominī, feminine domina); second declension

  1. a master, possessor, ruler, lord, proprietor
    Synonyms: erus, domnus, arbiter
  2. an owner of a residence; the master of its servants and slaves
  3. the master of a feast, the entertainer, host
  4. the master of a play or of public games, the employer of players or gladiators
  5. sir (greeting, in the vocative case)

Declension edit

Second-declension noun.

Case Singular Plural
Nominative dominus dominī
Genitive dominī dominōrum
Dative dominō dominīs
Accusative dominum dominōs
Ablative dominō dominīs
Vocative domine dominī

Derived terms edit

Descendants edit

  • Late Latin: domnus
    • Late Latin: dom
      • Old Spanish: don
        • Spanish: don (see there for further descendants)
    • Aragonese: dueño
    • Aromanian: domnu
    • Galician: don
    • Italian: donno, don
      • French: dom
    • Old Galician-Portuguese: dono
    • Romanian: domn
    • Sardinian: donnu
    • Sicilian: don, ron
    • Spanish: dueño
  • Medieval Latin: dominō (from the dative, possibly from benedīcāmus Dominō)
  • Basque: done
  • Catalan: en, na
  • Dutch: dominee (from the vocative)
  • English: domine, dominie, dominus, don
  • Italian: domino
  • Old French: dam
  • Portuguese: Dom

References edit

  • dominus” on page 571 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (1st ed., 1968–82)
  • De Vaan, Michiel (2008), “domus, dominus”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 177-179

Further reading edit

  • dominus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • dominus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • dominus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
  • dŏmĭnus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette, page 555
  • Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
    • the manager: dominus gregis
    • to examine slaves by torture: de servis quaerere (in dominum)
  • dominus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • dominus”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
  • Niermeyer, Jan Frederik (1976), “dominus”, in Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden, Boston: E. J. Brill, pages 353–4