dominus

See also: Dominus

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɒmɪnəs/

Noun

dominus (plural domini)

1. (historical) master; sir; a title of respect formerly applied to a knight or clergyman, and sometimes to the lord of a manor, castle 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.

Derived terms

• dominicide

Related terms

• domina
• don
• donzel

References

• “dominus”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Further reading

• Dominus (title) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• dimuons

Esperanto

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /doˈminus/

Verb

dominus

1. conditional of domini

Latin

Etymology

The original identity of the second vowel of this word is unclear:

• from Proto-Italic *dom-o/u-nos (“of the house”); both u- and o-stems are found in other branches;
• from Proto-Italic *domanos, from Proto-Indo-European *domHnos (“homeowner”), from *dṓm (“house”) + *-Hō (Hoffmann's suffix) via the oblique stem *-Hn-.

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

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈdɔ.mɪ.nʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈd̪ɔː.mi.nus]

Noun

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

1. master, possessor, ruler, lord, proprietor

   Synonyms: erus, domnus, arbiter

2. owner of a residence; master of his servants and slaves
3. master of a feast, entertainer, host
4. master of a play or of public games, employer of players or gladiators
5. sir (a greeting, in the vocative case)

Declension

Second-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	dominus	dominī
genitive	dominī	dominōrum
dative	dominō	dominīs
accusative	dominum	dominōs
ablative	dominō	dominīs
vocative	domine	dominī

Derived terms

• DN
• domicellus
• domina
• domināns
• dominanter
• dominātiō
• dominātor
• dominātrīx
• dominātus
• dominellus
• dominicus
• dominiōnus
• dominium
• dominius
• dominor
• Dominus
• dominus patriae
• dominus plebis
• dominus terrae
• domnus

Descendants

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

Further reading

• “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