doom [OE] The ancient root of doom meant ‘to put in place’ and is also the root of do [OE]. By the time that written English records began the emphasis had narrowed to putting law and order in place: the Old English senses of doom include ‘a law, statute’, ‘a judicial decision’, and ‘the right to judge’. Although Judgement Day was in use from the 13th century, doomsday (source of the name the Domesday Book for the survey of the land ordered by William the Conqueror in 1085 for tax purposes, because it was the final authority on such things) was also widely used. It was also shortened to doom, a use that survives only in the crack of doom [ME]. The 1947 musical Finian’s Rainbow popularized doom and gloom, which became a catchphrase when it was made into a film in 1968. The idea seemed appropriate to a world threatened by nuclear war.