Domesday

Conqueror's great inventory

Domesday refers to the Domesday Book, a comprehensive survey of English landholdings commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086.

The name invokes Judgment Day—the record was so authoritative that its assessments could not be appealed, like God's final judgment.

The spelling preserves the Middle English form of "doomsday." The property boundaries date back to Domesday.

survey

census

Official population count

recordPreserved account or achievement
assessmentFormal evaluation of worth
inventoryCatalog of held assets

register · compilation · enumeration · landholdings · valuation · manuscript · chronicle · documentation · archive · catalogue

Norman

William the Conqueror

Norman who invaded England

Norman ConquestFrench duke's English takeover
feudalismLand-for-service social structure
Anglo-SaxonPre-Conquest British Germanic peoples

manor · vassal · serfdom · knight · fief · baron · lordship · Normans · Saxons · Edward the Confessor

property

manor

Landed aristocratic residence

estateProperty and grounds
demesneLord's private estate
landholdingsOwned tracts of terrain

tenure · freehold · holdings · acreage · woodland · meadow · pasture · ploughland · villeins · livestock

taxation

levy

Compulsory government charge

geldCastrate male animal
tributeOffering of respect
assessmentFormal evaluation of worth

revenue · dues · valuation · renders · customs · liability · payment · obligation · yield · worth

Opposites

temporal documentation

Domesdayprophecy

Foretelling of future events

forecast · prediction · prognostication · projection · futurology

administrative function

Domesdayanarchy

Disorder from absent authority

lawlessness · terra incognita · uncharted territory · disorder · chaos

historical preservation

Domesdayephemera

Disposables preserved as collectibles

oral history · prehistory

Family

doom, dooms, doomed, doomsday, doomsayer, doomsaying, deem, deems, deemed

Familiarity: Top 1,000,000
Profile: Timeless · Concrete · Rated G