duomo

English

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Italian duomo. Doublet of dome and domus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdwəʊməʊ/, /duːˈəʊməʊ/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊməʊ

Noun

duomo (plural duomos or duomi)

1. A cathedral, or a cathedral-like building, especially one in Italy.
   • 1855, Alfred Tennyson, “(please specify the page)”, in Maud, and Other Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC:

     Of tower or duomo, sunny sweet.

   • 1914, E. V. Lucas, A Wanderer in Venice:

     There was no doubt as to the direction, with the campanile of the duomo as a beacon.

References

• “duomo”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdwɔ.mo/
• Rhymes: -ɔmo
• Hyphenation: duò‧mo

Etymology 1

Inherited as a shortening of Latin domus ecclēsiae​ (“meeting-house, house of the assembly”, a calque of Ancient Greek οἶκος τῆς ἐκκλησίας (oîkos tês ekklēsías), designating a private house placed at the disposal of the Christian community) and later domus Dominī (“house of our Lord”) or Deī (“of God”); from Proto-Italic *domos, from Proto-Indo-European *dṓm, derived from the root *dem- (“to build”).

Alternative forms

• domo

Noun

duomo m (plural duomi)

1. the principal church of a city (not having an episcopal throne)
2. a cathedral

Etymology 2

From French dôme.

Noun

duomo m (plural duomi)

1. (mechanics) steam dome
2. the upper part of an alembic

Further reading

• “Western architecture - Early Christian, First period, to AD 313”, in Encyclopedia Britannica‎, 2021 April 13 (last accessed)