dominie

English

Etymology

Alteration of domine, with spelling changed to reflect pronunciation. Doublet of dom, dominus, and don.

Noun

dominie (plural dominies)

1. (now chiefly Scotland) A schoolmaster, teacher.
   • 1858, James Hogg, Titan, volume 27, page 306:

     In the first room we entered, a soldier and a man, like a clerk or dominie, were discussing a bottle of red wine; they immediately sprang up and politely proffered us each a bumper.

   • 1876, Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, section XXI:

     the sign-painter's boy said that when the dominie had reached the proper condition on Examination Evening he would "manage the thing".

   • 1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 24:

     when it was time for the Strachan bairns to pass the end of the Cuddiestoun road on their way to school down there she was waiting and gave the paper to the eldest, the quean Marget, and told her to show it to the Dominie and ask him what it might mean.

2. (US) A pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church.

Related terms

• donzel

Scots

Etymology

From Latin domine, vocative singular of dominus (“lord", "sir", "head of household”); from domus (“house”) -inus.

Noun

dominie (plural dominies)

1. schoolmaster, teacher