early 15c., "prepared or made in the house," from Old French domestique (14c.) and directly from Latin domesticus "belonging to the household," from domus "house," from PIE *dom-o- "house," from root *dem- "house, household."

From 1610s as "relating to or belonging to the home or household affairs." From 1650s as "attached to home, devoted to home life." Meaning "pertaining to a nation (considered as a family), internal to one's country" is from 1540s. Of animals, "tame, living under the care of humans," from 1610s. Related: Domestically.

The noun meaning "a household servant" is from 1530s (a sense also found in Old French domestique); the full phrase servaunt domestical is attested in English from mid-15c. Domestics, originally "articles of home manufacture," is attested from 1620s; in 19c. U.S. use especially "home-made cotton cloths." Domestic violence is attested from 19c. as "revolution and insurrection;" 1977 as "spouse abuse, violence in the home."

The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion; and on application of the Legislature, or of the executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic violence. [Article IV, Section 4, U.S. Constitution, 1787]

Old English fugel "bird, feathered vertebrate," from Proto-Germanic *fuglaz, the general Germanic word for "bird" (source also of Old Saxon fugal, Old Frisian fugel, Old Norse fugl, Middle Dutch voghel, Dutch vogel, German vogel, Gothic fugls "a fowl, a bird"), perhaps a dissimilation of a word meaning literally "flyer," from PIE *pleuk-, from root *pleu- "to flow."

Displaced in its original sense by bird (n.); narrower sense of "barnyard hen or rooster" (the main modern meaning) is first recorded 1570s; in U.S. this was extended to domestic ducks and geese.

Old English fuglian "to catch birds," from the source of fowl (n.). Related: Fowled; fowling. Fowling-piece "gun used for shooting wildfowl" is from 1590s.

"domestic fowls collectively," late 14c., pultry (mid-14c. as "place where poultry is sold," also the name of a street in London), from Old French pouletrie "domestic fowl" (13c.), from pouletier "dealer in domestic fowl," from poulet "young fowl" (from PIE root *pau- (1) "few, little"). Also from Medieval Latin pultria, pulteria.

"the young of a chicken or domestic fowl," mid-15c. (early 14c. in surnames), a contraction of Middle English pulte, itself a contraction of polete "young chicken" (see pullet).

type of hawk that is believed to prey on domestic fowl, 1802, American English. Figuratively, from the secondary senses of both words, "public person who advocates war but declined significant opportunity to serve in uniform during wartime," at least 1988, American English. From chicken (n.) + hawk (n.).

Old English fugelere, agent noun from fuglian "to hunt fowl" (see fowl (v.)). The German equivalent is Vogler.

before vowels ornith-, word-forming element meaning "bird, birds," from combining form of Greek ornis (genitive ornithos; plural ornithēs) "a bird," in Attic generally "domestic fowl, cock or hen," which often was added to the specific name of the type of bird, from PIE *or- "large bird" (see erne).

For "bird" Greek also had ptēnon (plural peteina), related to pteron "wing," from the root meaning "to fly."

"of or resembling domestic fowl," 1783, from Latin gallinaceus "of hens, of fowls, pertaining to poultry," from gallina "hen," a fem. formation from gallus "cock," probably from PIE root *gal- "to call, shout," as "the calling bird." But it also has an ancient association with Gaul (see Gallic), and some speculate that this is the source of the word, "on the assumption that the Romans became acquainted with the cock from Gaul, where it was brought by the Phoenicians" [Buck].

"the young of the domestic hen," also of some other birds, mid-14c., probably originally a shortening of chicken (n.).

Extended 14c. to human offspring, "person of tender years" (often in alliterative pairing chick and child) and thence used as a term of endearment. As modern slang for "young woman" it is recorded by 1927 (in "Elmer Gantry"), supposedly from African-American vernacular. In British use in this sense by c. 1940; popularized by Beatniks late 1950s (chicken in this sense is by 1860). Sometimes c. 1600-1900 chicken was taken as a plural, chick as a singular (compare child/children) for the domestic fowl.