domestic

Pronunciation

• IPA: /dəˈmes.tɪk/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French domestique and directly from Latin domesticus (“belonging to the household”),^[2][3][4] from domus (“house”),^[2][3] from Proto-Indo-European *dem- (“house, household”).^[2] The Latin adjective was presumably formed from a lost *domestis, under the influence of words such as rusticus.^[3][5] It is related to dome, domicile, domesticate and timber.^[3][6][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Made or prepared in the home: before 1425 in Barnhart,^[3] the early 15th century in Etymonline.^[2]

Semantic evolution

“Belonging to one's own country, not foreign” is from 1545,^[3][7] and “of the home or household” from 1611, in Shakespeare's Cymbeline.^[3][7] Of animals, “tame, living under human care”, is from the 1610s,^[2][7] and of people, “devoted to home life”, from the 1650s.^[2] The noun, a member of the household, is from 1539, and a household servant from 1613, in Shakespeare's Henry VIII;^[3] the longer phrase servaunt domestical is attested from the mid-15th century.^[2] Domestics, articles of home manufacture, is from the 1620s, in the 19th-century United States especially home-made cotton cloth.^[2] Domestic violence meant revolution and insurrection in the 19th century, as in the United States Constitution, and violence in the home from 1977.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1425 – made in the home.^[3]
• 1539 – noun, a household member.^[3]
• 1545 – of one's own country.^[3][7]
• 1611 – of the household.^[3][7]
• 1613 – a household servant.^[3]
• 1620 – of tame animals.^[7]
• 1977 – domestic violence in the home.^[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Of or relating to the family or household.
2. Fond of home life and household affairs.
3. Of animals, tame or domesticated.
4. Of a country's internal affairs.
5. Produced in or native to a particular country.

Noun

1. A household servant.
2. An article of home manufacture, such as cotton cloth or household linen.

Word family

• domestically
• antidomestic
• domesticize
• nondomestic
• predomestic
• semidomestic
• undomestic
• domestic violence

Related words

• domesticate
• domesticity
• dome
• domicile
• dominate
• timber

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press