domestique

Forms

domestique (plural domestiques)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin domesticus (“of the house, of the family, familiar”), derived from domus (“house”).^[2][3][4][5] The borrowed form replaced Old French domesche (“tame, cultivated”) (about 1220), the inherited outcome of the same Latin word, which disappeared about the 15th century but lived on in many dialects in the sense “tame”.^[2][3][4] Littré explains that the Latin word, stressed on its second syllable, regularly gave the Old French form, and that the learned form, modelled on the Latin, replaced it from the 14th century.^[6]

Cognate with Old Occitan domesgue, Catalan domèstic, Spanish doméstico and Italian domestico.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears as an adjective about 1393 in Le Ménagier de Paris, in serviteurs domestiques, servants “of the house”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In older and classical use the adjective covered more than today, where it is chiefly opposed to sauvage of animals: it also qualified plants, household things and the private life of a country or people.^[3] Some of these uses have come back through English domestic, in the sense “internal, national”, as of flights.^[3]

As a noun from the 16th century it first meant a close friend (before 1520) and a person attached to a household, often in an important post (1534, Rabelais).^[2][3] Modern use narrowed it to a servant employed in the house, and even this has left official use in favour of employé de maison.^[3] The collective senses, the whole household (before 1594) and all the servants of a house (1732), gave way to domesticité.^[2][3]

Timeline

• c. 1220 – The inherited form domesche “tame” is found.^[2][3]
• c. 1393 – Serviteurs domestiques in the Ménagier de Paris.^[2][3]
• 15th century – Domestiquer is recorded.^[4][3]
• Before 1520 – Seyssel uses the noun for a close friend.^[2]
• 1534 – Rabelais uses it for a person attached to a household.^[2][7]
• 1541 – Calvin writes les domestiques de la foy.^[2][3]
• 1732 – Destouches uses it for all the servants of a house.^[2]
• 1836 – Domestication is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Relating to the household or home life: travaux domestiques housework.^[8][2]
2. Of an animal, living with people, tame, as opposed to wild.^[3][9]
3. Internal to a country, domestic, under English influence.^[3]

Noun

1. A servant employed in a household.^[3][1][8]
2. (figurative) A person who is subservient to another, to a group or to a doctrine.^[3]

Word family

• domestiquer
• domestication
• domestiquement
• domesticité

Related words

• dôme¹
• Latin domesticus
• Latin domus

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3, 123a
6. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
8. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)