Reconstruction:Proto-Italic/domanā

This Proto-Italic entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Feminine counterpart to *domanos, a derivative of Proto-Indo-European *dṓm (“home, house”), from *dem- (“to build”). The exact formation of this word is unclear; see Reconstruction notes.

*domanā f (masculine *domanos)

1. mistress

The identity of the second vowel of this word and its masculine counterpart *domanos, other than the fact it was a short vowel, cannot be recovered with certainty.

• The -i- in Latin domina and dominus can come from any short vowel via regular vowel reduction processes.
• Oscan -a- was inserted to break up a syncope-generated consonant cluster and implies nothing about the value of the syncopated vowel.

Attested reconstructions of the stem of the words for "master" and "mistress" include *doman-, *domen-, *domon-, and *domun-.

• Pinault's *doman- would be derived from a thematization of *dṓm (“house”) + *-Hō (possessive suffix), i.e. "one who owns a house".
• Pronk prefers *domen-, a simple thematization of an n-stem.
• De Vaan leaves alternatives *domon- and *domun-, each corresponding to a potential directly ancestral declension of Latin domus (“house”), as open possibilities. The suffix in this case would be *-nos (adjective suffix), with an overall meaning "(s)he of the house".

• Latin: domina (see there for further descendants)
• Oscan: διομανας (diomanas, gen. sg.) (initial di- to alliterate with a derivative of *djous)