-dom /dɔm/ is a Germanic suffix found in nouns. Following De Haas and Trommelen (1993: 253-4), three groups of -dom formations can be distinguished:

• nouns of neuter gender, taking the singular definite article het, denoting collections or groups of people, e.g. mensdom mankind < mens human. After stems ending in a stressed syllable before a plosive, a linking morpheme-en often occurs: regentendom regents; the latter forms are often have a slight bookish and pejorative feeling (Haeseryn et al. 1997: 674). Given the collective semantics of these formations, there is no plural form.
  [hide extra information]

  x

  adeldom nobility (from the collective noun adel nobility) is of common gender, taking the singular definite article de.

• nouns of neuter gender, taking the singular definite article het, denoting a territory or jurisdiction, e.g. prinsdom principality < prins prince, vorstendom principality < vorst monarch.
  [hide extra information]

  x

  bisdom diocese is the result of shorting of an older form bisschopdom bishop.SUF (Etymologiebank); heiligdom sanctuary is exceptional in having an adjectival base heilig holy.

• abstract nouns of common gender, taking the singular definite article de, derived from adjectives denoting property of A or state of e.g. rijkdom wealth and eigendom property < eigen own.
  [hide extra information]

  x

  eigendom property is most often used as a neuter noun, taking the singular definite article het, but neuter use is found as well, but then it restricted to formal writing; in informal prose, it sounds archaic. The noun ouderdom old age is derived from an allomorph of the stem oud old; the same form ouder also occurs as the comparative form (and as a noun meaning parent), which may be taken as problematic for the split morphology hypothesis(Booij 2002: 84), which entails that derivation and inflection are distinct, and belong to separate components of the grammar (Perlmutter 1988).

New forms with -dom are impossible, apart from pejorative names of groups of people with a plural base form such as journalistendom journalists.

The suffix carries secondary stress (Booij 2002: 31). It is non-cohering: it forms a prosodic word on its own and allows for prosodic gapping: christen- en heidendom Christianity and heathendom.

-dom formations with a concrete meaning can have a plural form, which is formed with -en, e.g. eigendommen properties, hertogdommen duchies. Diminutive forms are formed with the allomorph -etje because -dom carries secondary stress: vorstendommetje small principalitiy, hertogdommetjes small duchies. Rarely, formations with -dom are input to further derivation, e.g with adjectival -elijk, as in eigendommelijk pertaining to property, excentric and chrstendommelijk pertaining to Christianity, christian.