1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Doom

DOOM (Old Eng. dóm, a word common to Teut. languages for that which is set up or ordered, from “do,” in its original meaning of “place”; cf. Gr. θέμις, from stem of τίθημι), originally a law or enactment, the legal decision of a judge, and particularly an adverse sentence on a criminal. The word is thus applicable to the adverse decrees of fate, and particularly to the day of judgment. The verb “deem,” to deliver a judgment, and hence to give or hold an opinion, is a derivative, and appears also in various old Teutonic forms. It is seen in “deemster,” the name of the two judges of the Isle of Man.