Nice, I did not know that bit.
My pop culture understanding of the term is just "A small artifical lifeform" - not necessarily as mindless or lifeless as a golem and usually serving the mage that created it. The parts on Mandrake and Black-Hen-eggs are yucky btw.
(*Thinks of Monty Python's "every sperm is sacred" song*)
So for Dominions' magic it could be anything from Nature over Earth to Blood magic maybe crosspathed with Death or Water...
Very broad term.