Dom (title)

This article is about title. For a definition of the word "dona", see the Wiktionary entry dona.

Dom is a title of respect prefixed to the given name. It derives from Latin Dominus.

It is used in English for certain Benedictine and Carthusian monks, and for members of certain communities of Canons Regular. Examples include Benedictine monks of the English Benedictine Congregation (e.g. Dom John Chapman, late Abbot of Downside). The equivalent female usage for such a cleric is "Dame" (e.g. Dame Laurentia McLachlan, late Abbess of Stanbrook, or Dame Felicitas Corrigan, author).

It has historically been used on occasions in French, as in Dom Pérignon, and was used for the Avignon popes, analogously to the Italian and Spanish Don.

In Portugal and Brazil Dom is used as a title of respect, particularly for men of the royal and imperial dynasty or hierarchs of the Roman Catholic Church.^[1] The feminine form Dona is a common honorific reserved for women.

References

1. ^ Angus Stevenson, ed (2007). Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. Volume 1, A – M (Sixth edition ed.). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. p. 737. ISBN 9780199206872.