Meaning
What does Domestic Engineer mean?
Domestic engineer is the double talk alternative for saying housewife or househusband, or anyone in particular, that takes care of a household themselves.
Origin
What's the origin of Domestic Engineer?
Although the exact origin for “Domestic engineer” is not known, the expression started emerging in the late 1980’s and the 1990’s, appearing in several magazines, and books including “The Canadian Book of Snobs”, published by Victoria Branden in 1998, followed by books like Wayne D. Ford’s “How to Spot a Phony Resume”, published in 1999.
The phrase occurs in a ton of other contexts around this time, so it was already a widely known phenomenon by the turn of the 21st century.
Spread & Usage
How did Domestic Engineer spread?
“Domestic engineer” took off even more in the 2000’s, with the introduction of social media platforms, like MyVIP and later Facebook, where people had the chance to share their professions, as well as finding a better sounding euphemism for it.
The phrase was first defined on Urban Dictionary on September 2nd, 2006, with several other entries to follow.
During the 2010’s, “Domestic engineer” became even more popular as a phrase, with countless articles and blog posts being born about the phenomenon in 2017, leading to a spike in its popularity.