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dome

DOHM · noun

Ancient GreekLatinItalianMiddle FrenchEnglish

Origin

Dome comes from Middle French dome, domme, from Italian duomo, which traces to Latin domus (ecclesiae), literally "house (of the church)." That Latin phrase was itself a calque of the Ancient Greek oîkos tês ekklēsías, "house of the assembly."

Journey

The phrase for a church building narrowed over time into a word for the rounded roof that came to define such churches, eventually standing for the shape itself rather than the whole structure.

Related words

Dome is a doublet of both domus and duomo, meaning all three ultimately descend from the same Latin root but arrived in English through different paths.

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