There is a word that has quietly slipped into our homes in recent years. In Italian it’s domotizzare — “to make a home smart.” We reach for it when the lights switch on by themselves, when the thermostat adjusts the temperature while we’re at work, when we unlock the door from our phone. But where does the idea come from, and what does it say about us?
Italy’s language authority, the Accademia della Crusca, lists it among its “new words”: it means “to make the devices of a home automated through computer and electronic systems.” It comes from domotica (home automation) — itself from the French domotique, built on the Latin domus, “home,” joined to informatique, “computing.” The verb first appeared in 1995, in an architecture paper, but it really spread between 2018 and 2019, when the smart home stopped being a trade-fair luxury and started entering everyday life.
The numbers back it up. According to the Internet of Things Observatory at the Politecnico di Milano, in 2025 the Italian smart-home market passed one billion euros for the first time, growing 11%. Across the country there are now roughly 175 million connected devices, almost three per inhabitant. And the most requested features aren’t flashy gadgets, but security and energy savings — a sign that, deep down, we’re not chasing the home of the future, but a home that helps us feel calmer.
And this is where it’s worth pausing. Making a home smart doesn’t mean filling every room with screens and voice commands. It means taking weight off: automating the small, repetitive gestures — switching off, checking, adjusting — to free up time and mental energy for what truly matters. Technology, when it’s well designed, steps aside. It doesn’t demand your attention: it gives it back.
Because a home doesn’t become “intelligent” simply because it responds to commands. It becomes so when it adapts to your rhythms, protects the people you love, and welcomes you at the end of the day. Everything else — apps, sensors, assistants — is just a means. The goal is the same as it has always been: to feel at home. And that, thankfully, can’t be programmed with a remote.
Sources
- Accademia della Crusca, domotizzare, “Parole nuove” section (entry by Francesca Cialdini, 10 September 2020).
- Internet of Things Observatory, Politecnico di Milano, data on the Italian Smart Home market 2025 (over 1 billion euros, +11%).
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