domino
pronunciation
How to pronounce domino in British English:
UK [ˈdɒmɪnəʊ]
How to pronounce domino in American English:
US [ˈdɑmənoʊ]
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- Noun:
- a loose hooded cloak worn with a half mask as part of a masquerade costume
- a mask covering the upper part of the face but with holes for the eyes
- a small rectangular block used in playing the game of dominoes; the face of each block has two equal areas that can bear 0 to 6 dots
Word Origin
- domino
- domino: [18] The word domino was borrowed from French, where it originally signified (in the 16th century) a sort of hooded cloak worn by priests. It presumably represents a form of Latin dominus ‘lord, master’, but the reason for the application has never been satisfactorily explained (one suggestion is that it comes from the ritual formula benedicamus Domino ‘let us bless the Lord’).By the time English acquired it, it had come to mean ‘hooded cloak with a halfmask, worn at masquerades’, and by the 19th century it was being used for the mask itself. It is far from clear whether the application to the game played with small rectangular blocks, which dates in English from the 19th century, represents a new use of the same word or a return to the original Latin, but either way the reason behind the usage is not known.A possibility that has been advanced is that the winner of the game originally shouted domino! ‘lord!’.
- domino (n.)
- 1801, from French domino (1771), perhaps (on comparison of the black tiles of the game) from the meaning "hood with a cloak worn by canons or priests" (1690s), from Latin dominus "lord, master" (see domain), but the connection is not clear. Klein thinks it might be directly from dominus, "because he who has first disposed his pieces becomes 'the master.' " Metaphoric use in geopolitics is from April 1954, first used by U.S. President Eisenhower in a "New York Times" piece, in reference to what happens when you set up a row of dominos and knock the first one down.
Example
- 1. Another domino has fallen in the eurozone debt crisis .
- 2. In all , 10267 people finished the human domino in less than two hours .
- 3. " A worldwide conversion to white roofs , " they found , could actually warm the earth slightly due a complex domino effect .
- 4. In the chain of europe 's sovereign debt contagion the biggest domino of all is teetering .
- 5. Even vietnam , the first domino in the queue , has been part of the family since 1995 .