dompt

English

WOTD – 24 June 2021

Etymology

The verso side of the Narmer Palette, an archaeological relic unearthed in Egypt and dated to about the 31st century B.C.E. The relic depicts two men dompting serpopards, mythical leopards with serpent necks.

Borrowed from French dompter (“to break in, tame (an animal); to subdue, suppress”), from Middle French dompter, from Old French donter, danter, from Latin domitāre, the present active infinitive of domitō (“to tame”), from domō (“to break in, tame; to conquer, subdue, vanquish”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *demh₂- (“to domesticate, tame”)) + -itō (suffix forming frequentative verbs). The English word is a doublet of daunt.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /dɒm(p)t/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /dɑm(p)t/

• Audio (GA):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒmt, -ɒmpt, -ɑmt, -ɑmpt

Verb

dompt (third-person singular simple present dompts, present participle dompting, simple past and past participle dompted)

1. (transitive, rare) To bring (something) under control; to overcome, to subdue.

   Synonym: (obsolete) daunt

   • 1584, Iaspar Loarte [i.e., Gaspart Loarte], “Certaine General Aduertissementes Necessary for suche as Minde to Serue God Sincerely”, in James Sancer [pseudonym; Stephen Brinkley], transl., The Exercise of a Christian Life. […], [Rouen]: [Robert Person’s Press], →OCLC, pages 10–11:

     As touching corporal puniſhments and penance, as faſting, diſciplin, hare cloth and other chaſtiſements, it behoueth thee herein to vſe good diſcretiõ, taking ſuch as help to repreſſe the aſſaults and temptations of the fleſh, and leuing others that may be hurtful, not yeelding herein to the heats, which ſome nouices are vvont to haue in their beginning, who thorough indiſcrete mortifying, and dompting of their fleſhe, fal into ſome ſuche infirmitie, as aftervvardes they muſt needes pamper and cheriſhe it to much.

   • 1620, Peter du Moulin [i.e., Pierre Du Moulin], “The Twentieth Article. Of Iustification by Faith, and What True Faith Is.”, in [anonymous], transl., The Bvckler of the Faith: Or, A Defence of the Confession of Faith of the Reformed Churches in France, against the Obiections of M. [Jean] Arnoux the Iesuite. […], London: […] R[ichard] F[ield] for Nathanael Newbery, […], →OCLC, section 49 (Of the Feare of the Faithfull, and Whether It Derogateth Anything from the Certainty of Saluation), page 144:

     And if he did apprehend (as they ſay) nothing by the iudgement of men, he had no need to carrie his mortification ſo farre, as to dompt and ſubject his moſt inward and ſecret motions, and to pull downe the moſt liuely and ſecret prouocations of his fleſh: but it had bene ſufficient for him to haue vſed diſſimulation, and ſome outward ſhew of pretended reformation.

   • 1728, [Jonathan Smedley], “Essay V. Of Friendship.”, in Gulliveriana: Or, A Fourth Volume of Miscellanies. Being a Sequel of the Three Volumes, Published by Pope and Swift. […], London: […] J. Roberts, […], →OCLC, page 204:

     I, with Regret, remember'd, what a bright Figure he made in one of my Treatiſes: How I had cloath'd him with Armour given him by all the Gods; and had made him the Hero of the Ancients, to dompt thoſe two formidable Moderns, B—t—y and W—tt—n.

   • 1851, Elihu Burritt, “Extract from a Speech at Birmingham, in 1851”, in Lectures and Speeches, London: Sampson Low, Son, and Marston, […], published 1869, →OCLC, page 219:

     Peace is "at home" […] [to all] who, with labour patient and hopeful, have made the wildernesses of the world to blossom as the rose, have dompted and domesticated the winds and lightning to message-birds of business and friendship; […]

   • 1855 February 6, “A Sledge Masquerade”, in The Illustrated London News, volume XXVI, number 728, London: William Little […], published 17 February 1855, →OCLC, page 151, column 1:

     The masque represented an episode in the history of the Teutonic order during the year 1377. […] The Knights were victorious in all their engagements, and the wild Kynstutt was so far dompted that he sued for peace, and, as a guerdon of amity, proceeded to the Grand Master's quarters, with a train of richly-ornamented sledges, to invite him and Duke Albert to a grand banquet.

   • 1868, [Geoffroy IV de la Tour Landry], “Selections from the Knight of the Tower, His Book, for the Instruction of His Daughters”, in Alexander Vance, transl., Romantic Episodes of Chivalric & Mediæval France. […], Dublin: Moffat and Co.; London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co., →OCLC, page 281:

     Seeing then that courteſy will dompt the ſavage bird, which, by nature, is devoid of reaſon; much more ſhould it maſter and diſarm the untractableneſs of man or woman; be they ever ſo haughty, fierce or forbidding.

   • 1947, Albert Viney, The Ballet of Moments Unborn: […], London, New York, N.Y.: A. Melrose, →OCLC, page 244:

     A hero dompts Mattatias, too, a hero of rare astuteness, one who, as we watch, fends off by his quick wits the pogrom which he sees impending over Jerusalem.

   • 1977, Grahame Clark, “Ancient Egyptian Civilization”, in World Prehistory in New Perspective, 3rd edition, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, published 1996, →ISBN, page 236:

     Another knife-handle, this time of ivory from Gebel el-Arak, has been carved to show on one face combats between men and boats with standards and upturned ends and on the other a man dompting two lions.

   • 1987, Ann E[lizabeth] Farkas, Prudence O[liver] Harper, Evelyn B[yrd] Harrison, editors, Monsters and Demons in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds: Papers Presented in Honor of Edith Porada (The Franklin Jasper Walls Lectures), Mainz on Rhine: Verlag Philipp von Zabern, →ISBN, page 16:

     In the case of the Narmer palette, and an ivory carving from Hieraconpolis, this origin is reinforced by the addition of human figures who control or "dompt" the animals. For unknown reasons, the motif of a dompted pair of serpo-felines became the emblem of Cusae, a town in Middle Egypt, and is frequently attested as such in the Old and Middle Kingdom tombs at Meir.

   • 2018, Donald B[ruce] Redford, “The Nubian and First Libyan Campaigns”, in The Medinet Habu Records of the Foreign Wars of Ramesses III (Culture and History of the Ancient Near East; 91), Leiden, Boston, Mass.: Brill, →ISBN, →ISSN, section V, page 8:

     I am like Montu as king of Egypt, fear of me has dompted the Nine Bows, / It is Amun-re, my precious father, who overthrows every land beneath my feet, / I being king upon [his] throne forever!

Derived terms

• dompter
• dompting (adjective)

Translations

to bring (something) under control — see overcome,‎ subdue