LOGOI

The corpus record — Latin

dominus

dominus

master of a household, ruler

Generated live from the audited Latin corpus — every figure on this page is a database query, not prose from memory.

Where it lives

Densest 12 of 246 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. dominus — de Vaan

dominus 'master of a household, ruler' [m. o] (PL+) Derivatives: domino 'female head of the household, mistress' (PL+), dominium 'rule, dominion' (Laev\+), dominicus 'of a master' (Afran.+), dominari 'to rule, be in control' (Acc.+). \ Pit. *dom-o/u-no- 'of the house'. Pinault 2000: 90-91, building on a suggestion by Schindler, reconstructs ^dom-h^en-^ thematized as *dom-h3n-o- 'who profits of the house'. Since Skt. … — [de Vaan, s.v. dominus, p. 191]

2. dŏmĭnus — Lewis & Short

dŏmĭnus (in inscrr. sometimes written by syncop. DOMNVS), i, m.Sanscr. damanas, he who subdues, root dam-; Gr. dama/w, da/mnhmi, v. domo Prop., one who has subdued or conquered; hence,

I a master, possessor, ruler, lord, proprietor, owner (cf. herus).
I Prop.: quam dispari Dominare domino! Poëta ap. Cic. Off. 1, 39, 139: nec domo dominus, sed domino domus honestanda est, etc., Cic. ib. 39, 139; cf. id. Fin. 1, 18, 58: (vilicus) consideret, quae dominus imperaverit, fiant, etc., Cato R. R. 5, 3 sq.; so opp. servus, Plaut. Am. 2, 2, 227; id. Mil. 3, 1, 149; Ter. Ad. 5, 6, 6; id. Eun. 3, 2, 33; Varr. R. R. 1, 2, 17; id. ap. Non. 355, 19; Cic. Deiot. 11, 30; Sall. J. 31, 11 et saep.; opp. familia, Ter. Ad. 1, 2, 9; opp. ancilla, Cic. de Or. 2, 68, 276; and (with herus) Plaut. Capt. 2, 3, 3; cf. id. Ps. 4, 7, 90 sq.; Cic. N. D. 2, 63 et saep.—Also of the master's son, the young master, Plaut. Capt. prol. 18: siet in iis agris, qui non saepe dominos mutant ... de domino bono colono melius emetur, Cato R. R. 1, 4; cf. Cic. Att. 12, 19; id. de Sen. 16, 56; Hor. Ep. 2, 2, 174; so, rerum suarum, Cic. Tusc. 3, 5, 11: auctionum, id. Quint. 5, 19: insularum, Suet. Caes. 41: equi, id. ib. 61 et saep.—
II In gen., a master, lord, ruler, commander, chief, proprietor, owner (in republican Rome of public men, usually with the accessory notion, unlawful, despotic): hujus principis populi et omnium gentium domini atque victoris, Cic. Planc. 4 fin.; id. Off. 3, 21, 83; cf.: quippe qui (sc. populi) domini sint legum, judiciorum, belli, pacis, foederum, capitis, uniuscujusque, pecuniae, id. Rep. 1, 32: di domini omnium rerum ac moderatores, id. Leg. 2, 7; cf. id. Fin. 4, 5; id. Univ. 7: videsne, ut de rege (sc. Tarquinio) dominus exstiterit? hic est enim dominus populi, quem Graeci tyrannum vocant, etc., id. Rep. 2, 26; cf. id. 1, 45; Verg. A. 4, 214.— Trop.: liberatos se per eum dicunt gravissimis dominis, terrore sempiterno ac nocturno metu, Cic. Tusc. 1, 21; of the judge: qui rei dominus futurus est, id. de Or. 2, 17, 72; poët. of the possessor of an art, Ov. M. 1, 524; 13, 138.—
b Poet., sometimes as an adj.: dominae manus, Ov. Am. 2, 5, 30: arae, Stat. Th. 5, 578: praebere caput domina venale sub hasta, the auction spear, Juv. 3, 33.—
B In partic.
1 With or without convivii or epuli, the master of a feast, the entertainer, host, Cic. Vatin. 13; Lucil., Varr., and Sall. ap. Non. 281, 21 sq.; Varr. ap. Gell. 13, 11, 5; Liv. 23, 8 al.—
2 The master of a play or of public games; the employer of players or gladiators: quae mihi atque vobis res vortat bene Gregique huic et dominis atque conductoribus, Plaut. As. prol. 3; Cic. Att. 2, 19, 3.—
3 In the period of the empire (Augustus and Tiberius declined it, Suet. Aug. 53; Tib. 27), a title of the emperors, Suet. Dom. 13; Mart. 5, 8; 10, 72; Phaedr. 2, 5, 14; Inscr. Orell. 1109; 1146 al.—
4 A term of endearment in addressing a lover, Ov. Am. 3, 7, 11.—
5 In respectful greeting, like our Sir, Sen. Ep. 3; Mart. 6, 88; Suet. Claud. 21.—
6 A master or assignee of a forfeited estate, Cic. Quint. 15, 50.—
7 Of Christ, the Lord (eccl. Lat.): Augusti Caesaris temporibus natus est Dominus Christus, Oros. 6, 17 fin.; Vulg. Johan. 13, 13 et saep.

3. dominus — Walde–Hofmann

dominus, - m., domina, -ae f. „Hausherr, Herr“ bzw. , Hausfrau, Herrin* (beide seit Enn. [dicht, und nachklass. auch Adj. Schmalz 459. 629], domnus seit Lex agr., domna seit 1. Ih. n. Ch., rom. [auch dominedeus „Herrgott*], ebenso -wm n. „Herrschaft, Besitz, Cewalt, Gastgebot* [vgl dominus ,Gastgeber* seit Plaut.] seit Lucil, -ieus „herrschaftlich, des Herrn“ seit Afran. [dies -ieus, -ieca „Tag des Herrn, Sonntag", … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. dominus, p. 399]

In the wild

6 of 3,680 attestations shown.

Where it came from

  • de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) Treated in de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) s.v. dominus (scan p. 191; entry #446). Root candidates: *domHno-.
  • Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. dominus (scan p. 399; entry #952). Root candidates: *domo-, *domu-.

Latin text and lemmatization derived from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0. Lewis & Short (public domain) via Perseus. This derived data is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.