doom
pronunciation
How to pronounce doom in British English:
UK [duːm]
How to pronounce doom in American English:
US [duːm]
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- Noun:
- an unpleasant or disastrous destiny
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- Verb:
- decree or designate beforehand
- pronounce a sentence on (somebody) in a court of law
- make certain of the failure or destruction of
Word Origin
- doom
- doom: [OE] Doom derives ultimately from *dō-, the Germanic base from which the verb do comes. This originally meant ‘put, place’, and so Germanic *dōmaz signified literally ‘that which is put’. By the time it reached Old English as dōm a more concrete sense ‘law, decree, judgment’ had developed (this lies behind the compound doomsday ‘day of judgment’ [OE], whose early Middle English spelling has been preserved in Domesday book). The modern sense ‘(evil) fate’ first appeared in the 14th century.=> deem, do
- doom (n.)
- Old English dom "law, judgment, condemnation," from Proto-Germanic *domaz (cognates: Old Saxon and Old Frisian dom, Old Norse domr, Old High German tuom, Gothic doms "judgment, decree"), from PIE root *dhe- "to set, place, put, do" (cognates: Sanskrit dhaman- "law," Greek themis "law," Lithuanian dome "attention;" see factitious). A book of laws in Old English was a dombec. Modern sense of "fate, ruin, destruction" is c. 1600, from the finality of the Christian Judgment Day.
- doom (v.)
- late 14c., from doom (n.). Related: Doomed; dooming.
Example
- 1. He appears to warn inhabitants of impending doom .
- 2. For a small handful , the portents of doom came true .
- 3. So where are the headlines warning of gloom and doom this time ?
- 4. Dark clouds gathered on the horizon foretell doom in the popular imagination .
- 5. That 's the dr. doom we know and love .