Etymology

kingdom

king·dom
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Today it means: A realm having a king or queen as its actual or nominal sovereign. Full definition →

Middle English kingdom ← Old English cyningdōm ← Proto-Germanic *kuningadōmaz
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The story

  1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*kuningadōmaz
  2. Old English · inherited fromcyningdōm
  3. Middle English · inherited fromkingdom
  4. English todaykingdom

From Middle English kingdom, kyngdom, from Old English cyningdōm from Proto-Germanic *kuningadōmaz, equivalent to king + -dom. Cognate with Scots kingdom, West Frisian keuningdom, Dutch koningdom, German Königtum, Danish kongedømme, Swedish kungadöme, and Icelandic konungdómur. Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- Proto-Indo-European *-yós Proto-Germanic *kunją Proto-Indo-European *-n̥kʷo-der.? Proto-Indo-European *-nós Proto-Indo-European *-iHnos Proto-Germanic *-īnaz Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Germanic *-gaz ? Proto-Germanic *-ingaz Proto-Germanic *kuningaz Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- Proto-Indo-European *-mos Proto-Indo-European *dʰóh₁mos Proto-Germanic *dōmaz Proto-Germanic *-dōmaz Proto-Germanic *kuningadōmaz Proto-West Germanic *kuningadōm Old English cyningdōm Middle English kingdom English kingdom

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.