"the territory, jurisdiction, or dignity of an earl," Old English eorldom; see earl + -dom.
Entries linking to earldom
earl n.
Old English eorl "brave man, warrior, leader, chief" (contrasted with ceorl "churl"), from Proto-Germanic *erlaz, which is of uncertain origin. In Anglo-Saxon poetry, "a warrior, a brave man;" in later Old English, "nobleman," especially a Danish under-king (equivalent of cognate Old Norse jarl), then one of the viceroys under the Danish dynasty in England. After 1066 adopted as the equivalent of Latin comes (see count (n.1)).
Earl Grey tea (1880s) was originally a Chinese tea blended with bergamot oil, supposedly from a recipe given to Charles, second Earl Grey (the Whig prime minister), in the 1830s, but perhaps it was named later, commercially, in his honor.
-dom
abstract suffix of state, from Old English dom "statute, judgment" (see doom (n.)). Originally an independent word, but already active as a suffix in Old English (as in freodom, wisdom). Cognate with German -tum (Old High German tuom). "Jurisdiction," hence "province, state, condition, quality."