For instance:
Домашняя девушка.
Is that the same as home bird (домосед)?
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4 Answers
"домашний" when aplied to people is more like a neutral word denoting a pleasant person who likes staying at home and pursues activities that do not require much travel, noise and being far from home. Also, by alalogy with domestic animals, the word has a shade of that person being friendly, furry, nice, positive, Does not like conflicts.
"Домосед" may focus on a person being, like "too much" of домашний — lazy, indifferent, refuses to go to interesting places even if it is easy and when explicitly offered and so on. However, it may still be pretty neutral. Think of "persistent" and "stubborn", which also mean mostly the same quality but are used one with possitive and the other with negative connotation. "Домосед" is not as clearly positive as "persistent", but not quite as negative of a characteristic as "stubborn". Maybe halfway between the two.
"домашняя девушка" can be approximately translated as "domesticated girl" in English, meaning:
to train (someone) to behave in an appropriate way at home (such as by using good manners, being polite, being helpful, etc.)
In Russian this expression refers to a girl who tends to stay home most of the time rather going out a lot, partying etc. So, it's a slightly higher bar than simply behaving appropriately by modern Western standards.
"домашнее животное" means "domesticated animal", e.g. "домашний кот" vs. "дикий кот" means a domesticated cat kept at home as a pet vs. a wild cat.
When applied to animals the word "domesticated" means (similarly to Russian):
to breed or train (an animal) to need and accept the care of human beings : to tame (an animal)
Hence, "домашний" applied to humans or animals means almost the same as "domesticated" in English.
Consider the lyrics of "Blurred Lines" song by R Thicke:
OK now he was close, tried to domesticate you But you're an animal, baby, it's in your nature Just let me liberate you
answered May 18, 2014 at 17:20
Depending on context - for example, "мои домашние" means "people I live with", usually this also means relatives, not just friend who lives with you.
"Домашняя девушка" doesn't mean exactly the same as "домосед". "Домосед" denotes a person who likes staying at home, while "домашний" denotes a person who likes being at home with his (her) family.
