Domesday Book

Meaning

Proper Noun

• The Book of Winchester: a record of the great survey of England carried out in 1086 for William the Conqueror.

Origin

• From Middle English Domesdei. According to Dialogus de Scaccario (circa 1180): Hic liber ab indigenis ‘Domesdei’ nuncupatur, id est dies iudicii per metaphoram. Sicut enim districti et terribilis examinis illius nouissimi sententia nulla tergiuersationis arte ualet eludi, sic cum orta fuerit in regno contentio de hiis rebus que illic annotantur, cum uentum fuerit ad librum, sententia eius infatuari non potest uel impune declinari: its decisions were final, as those on doomsday.