Stardom is the state of being a famous performer. Rise to stardom, overnight stardom, the price of stardom.
Overnight stardom nearly always follows years of unnoticed work, which is why the phrase is a joke among performers. The -dom ending makes a state or a domain, as in freedom and kingdom, and here it names a condition somebody is in rather than a place. Note star, in the sense of a famous performer.
1nounstardomThe state of being a famous performer.
“She shot to stardom after her first film became a surprise hit.”
stardom is a state of fame.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₂eHs-
Middle English
sterre
English
star
English, today
stardom
Built from
From star + -dom. star comes from Middle English sterre. From Middle English sterre, from Old English steorra (“star”), from Proto-West Germanic sterrō, variant of sternō, from Proto-Germanic sternô, sternǭ (“star”), from Proto-Indo-European h₂stḗr (“star”). a doublet of aster; related to estoile, étoile, stella, and stelo. 2
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA