Abstract
The aim of this article is to illustrate the progressive development of the English suffix –dom, starting from the OE noun dōm ‘judgment, opinion’. After a brief historical synopsis on this relatively new linguistic concept, the survey itself will focus mainly on the morphological as well as semantic aspect of the process. Considering each definition of every word ever attested from the dawning of Anglo-Saxon writing until 1980s, the analysis will have two main goals: firstly, it will be investigated whether there is a correspondence between the oldest words (up to ME) and some coeval languages cognate to English (Gothic, Old High German, Old Norse and Old Saxon), then a statistical survey will be carried out concerning the productivity of this suffix with particular attention to the different kinds of bases (be it a noun, an adjective or a verb) forming the words. The second part of the article will deal with the several shifts and developments of meaning occurred to the suffix in the course of time, starting from the wide semantic range of the Anglo-Saxon noun dōm.
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