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DOMESTIC - 12 reference results
gross domestic product: see gross national product.
domestic shorthair cat: see cat.
domestic service, work performed in a household by someone who is not a member of the family. It was performed by slaves in many early civilizations, e.g., in Greece and Rome. Under the feudal system the work was done by serfs. The guild system required indentured apprentices to perform household duties while learning a trade. With the disappearance of feudalism and guilds, servants were recruited from free wage earners. Domestic service came to be regarded as an unattractive occupation because of the long hours, low wages, poor living conditions, low social status, and dependence on the personal habits of the employer. In the colonies of North America, domestic service was performed by transported convicts, bond servants who sold themselves into service for stated periods to pay their passage, Native Americans, and black slaves. After the American Revolution indentured servants were largely replaced, except in the South, by free labor. Growing numbers of upper middle-class families in the late 19th and early 20th cent. increased the demand for domestic servants, which was largely met by immigrants. Immigration quotas established in 1921 cut down this supply, and the demand for servants was subsequently reduced by the use of labor-saving devices. As the growing number of working women has created an increased need for child-care workers, many families have turned to professionals for such services. The number of domestics has declined from a peak of 2.4 million in 1940 to 795,000 in 1997. In 1950 the old-age insurance system was expanded to include household employees who were regularly employed, and in the social security amendments of 1954 old-age and survivors' insurance were extended to domestic servants regardless of work regularity. In Great Britain domestic workers are covered by national health and unemployment insurance schemes.

See D. Katzman, Seven Days a Week (1981); L. Martin, The Servant Problem (1985); P. Palmer, Domesticity and Dirt (1989).

domestic science: see home economics.
domestic relations. For psychological and sociological aspects, see marriage. For legal aspects, see divorce; husband and wife; parent and child.

Total market value of the goods and services produced by a nation's economy during a specific period of time. GDP is customarily reported on an annual basis. It is defined to include all final goods and services—that is, those that are produced by the economic resources located in that nation regardless of their ownership and are not resold in any form. GDP differs from gross national product (GNP), which is defined to include all final goods and services produced by resources owned by that nation's residents, whether located in the nation or elsewhere.

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Drama in which the main characters are ordinary people. This form of tragedy contrasts with Classical tragedy, in which the main characters are of royal or aristocratic rank. An early domestic tragedy, A Warning for Faire Women (1599), deals with the murder of a merchant by his wife. The form became popular in the mid-18th century and reached its maturity in the 19th-century bourgeois tragedies of Henrik Ibsen. Gerhart Hauptmann, Eugene O'Neill, and Arthur Miller wrote important 20th-century domestic tragedies.

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or putting-out system

Production system widespread in 17th-century Europe in which merchant-employers “put out” materials to rural home workers, who then returned finished products to the employers for payment. The domestic system differed from the handicraft system of home production in that the workers neither bought materials nor sold products. It undermined the urban guilds and brought the first widespread industrial employment of women and children. The system was generally superseded by employment in factories but was retained in the 20th century in some industries, notably watchmaking in Switzerland, toy manufacturing in Germany, and many industries in India and China.

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Breed of domestic cat. Show standards call for a sturdily built cat with strong-boned legs, a round head, round eyes, and ears that are rounded at the tips. The coat must be short and may be of almost any colour or pattern. Some colours, such as blue cream, are infrequently found in shorthairs; others, such as tabby (stripes and mottled patterns in silver, brown, blue, and red), are common.

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Employment of hired workers by private households for tasks including housecleaning, cooking, child care, gardening, and personal service. It also includes the performance of similar tasks for hire in public institutions and businesses, including hotels and boardinghouses. In ancient Greece and Rome domestic service was performed almost exclusively by slaves. In medieval Europe serfs provided much of the necessary labour force. Indentured servants were widely used in colonial America, as were black slaves in the pre-Civil War South. In Victorian England many middle- and upper-class households hired domestic servants; the royalty and gentry often employed huge staffs with an elaborate hierarchy. Domestic service has declined in the U.S. and Europe since the early 1920s, a trend attributed to the leveling of social classes, greater job opportunities for women, and the spread of labour-saving household devices.

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or house cat

Domesticated carnivore (Felis catus) that retains many characteristics of the larger wild cats but differs in coat and size. Breeds are either shorthaired (e.g., Siamese) or longhaired (e.g., Persian). Domestic cats are usually white, black, yellow, or gray and sometimes have markings of a different colour. A pattern of dark stripes or swirls on a lighter background is called tabby. Males may reach lengths of 28 in. (71 cm), and females are usually about 20 in. (51 cm) long. Weights generally vary from 6 to 10 lb (2.5 to 4.5 kg), though nonpedigreed cats may weigh up to 28 lb (13 kg). The most closely related wild species are the North African wildcats (including Felix lybica). Valued for their mouse and rat hunting, which protected farmers' grain supplies, cats were being domesticated in ancient Egypt by 1500 BC. The Cat Fanciers' Association now recognizes about 37 breeds.

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