I was reading the book Professional English in Use: ICT from Cambridge University Press and there I came across the word Domotics. It is a very nice book, written by Santiago Remacha Esteras and Elena Marco Fabré, and I think will be useful for anyone (including myself) who is thinking of teaching the rather specialized English vocabulary associated with ICT, computers and the internet. One of the words that I didn’t already know is Domotics. It is in the section entitled “Intelligent homes” and we are told that it “involves the use of information technology applied to domestic appliances in order to create intelligent systems inside the home.” Demotics, they tell us, comes “from the Latin word ‘domus’ plus ‘robotics’, also known as automation”.
I was slightly surprized by this word as it somehow reminded me of another word and I later realized that the other word was Demotic, which means belonging to the people or popular. Demotics also is to do with people and could be considered a form of sociology.
I looked up Domotics on Wikipedia and found it under Home automation. Seemingly it is a field within Building Automation, in other words it is a technical term.
Answers.com describes it thus: “(DOMus infOrmaTICS) Information technology in the home (domus is Latin for home).”
Personally I doubt whether Domotics will catch-on for the demotic population. I think the term adopted on the streets will be Home Automation and the term Domotic will remain as a specialized branch of Building Automation, only used by the technical elite. In fact perhaps more likely than either is the term Digital Home. Already there is a Digital Living Network Alliance which is described on the internet at Domotics Point.
ETYM
As suggested by the other people quoted:
Domus - Latin for home.
Robotics and Informatics - giving “otics”.
