Origin: before 900; Middle English dome, dōm,Old English dōm judgment, law; cognate with Old Norse dōmr,Gothic dōms; compare Sanskrit dhā́man,Greek thémis law; see do1, deem
O.E. dom "law, judgment, condemnation," from P.Gmc. *domaz, from PIE root *dhe- (cf. Skt. dhaman- "law," Gk. themis "law," Lith. dome "attention"), lit. "to set, put" (see factitious). A book of laws in O.E. was a dombec. Modern sense of "fate, ruin, destruction" is c.1600,