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domestic - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle French domestique, from Latin domesticus, from domus (“house, home”).

domestic (comparative more domestic, superlative most domestic)

  1. Of or relating to the home.
  2. Of or relating to activities normally associated with the home, wherever they actually occur.
  3. (of an animal) Kept by someone, for example as a farm animal or a pet.

    • 1890, US Bureau of Animal Industry, Annual report v 6/7, 1889/90:

      It shall be the duty of any owner or person in charge of any domestic animal or animals.

  4. Internal to a specific country.

    • 1996, Robert O. Keohane, Helen V. Milner, Internationalization and Domestic Politics:

      The proportion of international economic flows relative to domestic ones.

    • 2013 August 3, “Boundary problems”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:

      Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too. GDP measures the total value of output in an economic territory. Its apparent simplicity explains why it is scrutinised down to tenths of a percentage point every month.

  5. Tending to stay at home; not outgoing.

    • 1994, George Whitmore, “Getting Rid of Robert”, in Violet Quill:

      “Dan’s not as domestic as you," I commented rather nastily.

    • 1927, Havelock Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 2 (of 6)‎[1]:

      Homosexual men were non-warlike and homosexual women non-domestic, so that their energies sought different outlets from those of ordinary men and women; they became the initiators of new activities.

of or relating to the home

(of a domesticated animal) kept by someone

internal to a specific country

Translations to be checked

domestic (plural domestics)

  1. A maid or household servant.

    • 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Humours and Dispositions of the Laputians Described. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part III (A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Glubbdubdribb, Luggnagg, and Japan), pages 16–17:

      It ſeems, the Minds of theſe People are ſo taken up with intenſe Speculations, that they neither can ſpeak, nor attend to the Diſcourſes of others, without being rouzed by ſome external Taction upon the Organs of Speech and Hearing; for which reaſon, thoſe Perſons who are able to afford it always keep a Flapper (the Original is Climenole) in their Family, as one of their Domeſticks, nor ever walk abroad or make Viſits without him.

    • 1838, [Letitia Elizabeth] Landon (indicated as editor), chapter XIX, in Duty and Inclination: […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 244:

      Her fears thus prevailing, she communicated them to her mother as soon as the object of them had retired, who not in the least participating in them, they gradually subsided; but for an interval only, for, when retired to her chamber, during the hours of repose, every sound intimidated her; the growling of their faithful dog, or a halfsuppressed bark, brought the looks of the new domestic again before her sight.

    • 1992, Mary Romero, Maid in the U.S.A.:

      New standards of cleanliness increased the workload for domestics.

  2. (informal, colloquial) A domestic dispute, whether verbal or violent.
    • 2005, Bellingham-Whatcom County Commission Against Domestic Violence, Domestic Violence in Whatcom County (read on the Whatcom County website at[2] on 20 May 2006) - The number of “verbal domestics” (where law enforcement determines that no assault has occurred and where no arrest is made), decreased significantly.

    • 2010, Harry Keeble, Baby X: Britain’s Child Abusers Brought to Justice, →ISBN, page 153:

      Nobody wanted to join the 'Cardigan Squad' – so-called because Child Protection officers were seen as woolly, glorified social workers that mopped up after domestics.

domestic (not comparable)

  1. domestic, domesticated, pertaining to homes, home life or husbandry

Borrowed from French domestique, Latin domesticus. Largely replaced earlier dumesnic.

domestic m or n (feminine singular domestică, masculine plural domestici, feminine and neuter plural domestice)

  1. domestic (of or relating to the home)
  2. (of animals) domestic
  • (of or related to the house): casnic