domicile

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English domicilie,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Middle French domicile,^[4][5][6] which Etymonline dates to the 14th century in Old French,^[7] and directly borrowed from Latin domicilium (“dwelling, habitation”),^[2][4][7] from domus (“house”),^[6][3][8] from Proto-Indo-European *dem- (“house, household”).^[7][3] Etymonline and Barnhart take the second part as colō (“to dwell”), Barnhart positing an earlier compound meaning house-dwelling,^[7][4] while Dictionary.com suggests a form with -cola (“dweller”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A dwelling or residence: 1442, in a Suffolk will that speaks of goods belonging to the Domycylie of Freston.^[2][4] The OED's first quotation is from Caxton's History of Jason (1477).^[6]

Semantic evolution

From the first the word meant a place of residence or home, also an animal's dwelling and figurative abodes.^[6][2] In the mid-18th century it became a legal term for the place where a person has a permanent home, to which he or she means to return when away (OED: 1766–80, in Lord Mansfield's judgments).^[6][7] In 1835 it was also used of the fact of residing.^[6] In commerce it has meant, since 1892, the place where a bill of exchange is to be paid.^[6] The verb, to establish in a fixed residence, is recorded from 1809, in a law dictionary,^[6][5] though Etymonline finds it implied in domiciled by 1762;^[7] in commerce it meant to make a bill payable at a certain place (1809).^[6][5] In Scots it was used for settling down and residing, as in Galt's Gilhaize (1823).^[10] Weekley notes that the phrase domiciliary visit follows French visite domiciliaire, where the visit is a search of a house.^[11]

Timeline

• 1442 – domicylie, a dwelling or residence.^[2][4]
• 1766 – in law, a person's permanent home, as against a temporary residence.^[6][7]
• 1809 – verb, to establish in a fixed residence; in commerce, to make a bill payable at a place.^[6][5]
• 1831 – verb, intransitive, to dwell.^[6]
• 1835 – the fact of being resident.^[6]
• 1892 – in commerce, the place where a bill of exchange is payable.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (formal) A home; the place where a person or family lives: The cottage had been their domicile for forty years.^[12][5][6]
2. (law) The place a person treats as a permanent home, which settles which laws apply to him or her: Despite years abroad, his domicile remained Scotland.^[5][6][12]
3. In commerce, the place where a bill of exchange is to be paid.^[12][6]

Verb

1. To settle in, or provide with, a home or permanent residence: families domiciled in the north.^[5][6][12]
2. To make a bill of exchange or promissory note payable at a named place.^[5][6]

Word family

• domiciliary
• domiciliar

Related words

• dome
• domestic
• colony

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins