domus
English
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin domus. Doublet of dome.
Noun
domus (plural domus)
- (anthropology, archaeology) A farmstead with its people, plants and animals, considered as a unit.
- 2017, James C Scott, chapter 2, in Against the Grain, New Haven and London: Yale University, →ISBN, page 73:
- The domus was a unique and unprecedented concentration of tilled fields, seed and graain stores, people, and domestic animals, all coevolving with consequences no one could possibly have foreseen.
-
- (dated) In the UK a college (or collectively its fellows) in Cambridge or Oxford.
Anagrams
- doums, modus
Latin
Alternative forms
- demus (uncertain)
Etymology
For Proto-Italic *domos, from Proto-Indo-European *dṓm (“house, home”), from root *dem- (“to build”). Cognates include Ancient Greek δόμος (dómos), Albanian dhomë (“a chamber, a room”), Avestan 𐬛𐬀𐬨- (dam-) Sanskrit दम (dáma), Proto-Slavic *domъ and further to English timber. At least indirectly cognate to Latin dominus.
The feminine gender probably due to the original root noun; attempts to transfer it to the 4th declension are due to 2nd declension feminines being unusual outside of treenames. Some manuscripts of Plautus show forms in dem-; De Vaan (2008) doubts their authenticity.
Pronunciation
- (Classical) IPA(key): /ˈdo.mus/, [ˈd̪ɔmʊs̠]
- (Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈdo.mus/, [ˈd̪ɔːmus]
Noun
domus f (irregular, variously declined, genitive domūs or domī); fourth declension, second declension
- house, home (the building where a person lives)
- 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 2.792:
- nox erat et tōta lūmina nūlla domō
- It was night, and [there were] no lights in the whole house.
- nox erat et tōta lūmina nūlla domō
- a townhouse
- Hypernyms: aedificium, aedēs
- Hyponyms: casa, domuncula, tugurium, gurgustium
- (Can we date this quote?), Motto of Methodist Ladies' College, Melbourne
- Deō domuīque.
- For God and for home.
- (Can we date this quote?), First part of the motto of Harrow School, England
- Stet Fortūna Domūs.
- Let the good fortune of the house stand.
- any dwelling-place or abode (of people or animals)
- (also of the shell of invertebrates, tombs of the dead)
- Synonyms: domicilium, habitāculum, habitātiō, tēctum, mānsiō, sēdēs, aedēs
- the place of one's birth or residence, native country, town
- Hypernym: patria
- household, family (the dependants of the head of a house)
- a group of disciples, school; an intellectual movement
- (monarchy) house, dynasty
- (idiomatic) one's own possessions or resources
- domum trahere ― to drag into one's pocket
- domī versūra fit ― One is one's own creditor (proverb).
- domō afferre ― to conceive on one's own
- c. 190 BCE – 185 BCE, Plautus, Amphitryon 637:
- id nunc experior domō
- Now I'm learning this first-hand.
- id nunc experior domō
- (in locative case in phrases, idiomatic) peace
- bellī domīque/ bello domique/ vel belli vel domi/ domi belloque, domi militiaeque ― In war and peace.
- Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita, I, 38 :
- ut non quietior populus domi esset quam militiae
- so that the people should not become lazier in the time of peace than that of war
- ut non quietior populus domi esset quam militiae
Usage notes
- This is one of a handful of common nouns that take the locative case; others are bellum, rūs and humus.
- It is irregular in that it has a mix of second and fourth declension forms, the second declension forms being more idiomatic. The classically most common declension is as follows:
- domus, domūs, domuī, domum, domō — domūs, domōrum, domibus, domōs, domibus.
Declension
Fourth/second-declension noun, with locative.
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | domus | domūs |
| Genitive | domūs domī | domuum domōrum |
| Dative | domuī domō domū | domibus |
| Accusative | domum | domūs domōs |
| Ablative | domū domō | domibus |
| Vocative | domus | domūs |
| Locative | domī | domibus |
Derived terms
- domī (“at home, in the house”, adverbial form)
- domī habeō (“I have at home, I have in abundance, I am provided with”, colloquial)
- domum (“home, homewards, to the house”, adverbial form)
- domō (“from home, out of the house; at home, in the house”, adverbial form)
- extrā domum (“placed outside of the house; refers to a possible result of Catholic ecclesiastical legal proceedings when the culprit is removed from being part of a group like a monastery”)
- prō domō (“for one’s own home or house; serving the interests of a given perspective or for the benefit of a given group”)
- domuncula
- domesticus
- Domidūcus
- domiporta
- domiseda
- dominus
- domītus
- domuitiō
- domus equestris
Related terms
- domō
- domefactus
Descendants
- Italian: duomo (“cathedral”)
- → Middle French: dome
- French: dôme (“cathedral”)
- →? Piedmontese: dòm, dom
- →? Portuguese: domo
- French: dôme (“cathedral”)
- → Middle French: dome
- Old French: dom (rare)
- Sardinian: domu, domo, dommu
- Sicilian: domu
- → Proto-West Germanic: *dōm (see there for further descendants; some were later influenced by French)
See also
- aedēs
- aedificium
- aedis
- casa
- domicilium
- habitātiō
- mānsiō
- mōlēs
- sēdēs
- tēctum
- tugurium
References
- De Vaan, Michiel (2008), “domus, dominus”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 177-179
- Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002), “domus”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), volume 3: D–F, page 135
- Dizionario Latino, Olivetti
Further reading
- “domus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “domus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- domus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
- domus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette, page 555
- domus in Georges, Karl Ernst; Georges, Heinrich (1913–1918) Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, volume 1, 8th edition, Hahnsche Buchhandlung, column 2285
- Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
- a comfortably-furnished house: domus necessariis rebus instructa
- the house threatens to fall in (vid. sect. X. 5, note 'Threaten'...): domus ruina impendet
- the house threatens to fall in (vid. sect. X. 5, note 'Threaten'...): domus collapsura, corruitura (esse) videtur
- the house suddenly fell in ruins: domus subita ruina collapsa est
- to demolish, raze a house: domum demoliri (Top. 4. 22)
- the house is not large enough for all: domus non omnes capit (χωρειν)
- to be a regular visitor at a house: domum frequentare (Sall. Cat. 14. 7)
- the house walls are beginning to crack: domus rimas agit
- (ambiguous) to welcome to one's house (opp. to shut one's door against some one): tecto, (in) domum suam aliquem recipere (opp. prohibere aliquem tecto, domo)
- to welcome a man as a guest in one's house: hospitio aliquem accipere or excipere (domum ad se)
- I am always welcome at his house: domus patet, aperta est mihi
- (ambiguous) to invite some one to one's house: invitare aliquem tecto ac domo or domum suam (Liv. 3. 14. 5)
- to give, undertake a contract for building a house: domum aedificandam locare, conducere
- (ambiguous) to rush out of the house: se proripere ex domo
- (ambiguous) I felt quite at home in his house: apud eum sic fui tamquam domi meae (Fam. 13. 69)
- (ambiguous) to welcome to one's house (opp. to shut one's door against some one): tecto, (in) domum suam aliquem recipere (opp. prohibere aliquem tecto, domo)
- (ambiguous) to never set foot out of doors: domo pedem non efferre
- (ambiguous) to never appear in public: domi se tenere
- (ambiguous) to escort a person from his house: deducere aliquem de domo
- (ambiguous) at home; in one's native country: domi (opp. foris)
- (ambiguous) to turn a person out of his house, his property: expellere aliquem domo, possessionibus pellere
- (ambiguous) to live in some one's house: habitare in domo alicuius, apud aliquem (Acad. 2. 36. 115)
- (ambiguous) to emigrate: domo emigrare (B. G. 1. 31)
- (ambiguous) homeless: domo profugus (Liv. 1. 1)
- (ambiguous) to invite some one to one's house: invitare aliquem tecto ac domo or domum suam (Liv. 3. 14. 5)
- a comfortably-furnished house: domus necessariis rebus instructa
- “domus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
- “domus”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
Anagrams
- modus
Volapük
Noun
domus
- predicative plural of dom