hus

Forms

hūs n (strong a-stem; genitive singular hūses)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *hūs, from Proto-Germanic *hūsą (“house”).^[1][2] The noun is found across Germanic: Gothic 𐌲𐌿𐌳𐌷𐌿𐍃 (gudhūs, “temple”) (only in this compound), Old Norse hús, Old Frisian hūs, Old Saxon hūs and Old High German hūs.^[2][3][4]

Its further origin is not settled.^[2][3] Kroonen calls it etymologically obscure; he rejects the old comparison with Ancient Greek κεύθω (keúthō, “to hide”) and thinks it may be a thematised neuter s-stem made to Proto-Indo-European *kuH- (“to cover”).^[2] Köbler likewise connects it with the root Proto-Indo-European *(s)keu- (“to cover, wrap”) (Pokorny 951–953).^[4] Orel instead takes it as a loan from an East Iranian form of the word behind Avestan kata- (“room, cellar”).^[3] Holthausen compares Norwegian and Icelandic words for a skull and a case and, with a query, Sanskrit कोश (kośa, “container”).^[5]

In Old English it is a strong neuter a-stem, like word and land.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded in the Corpus Glossary (CCCC 144, first half of the ninth century), where huses glosses the Latin genitive “domatis”, “of a house”.^[7][8] The Vespasian Psalter gloss of the mid-ninth century has it in Psalm 5: ic inga dryhten in hus ðin, “I shall go, Lord, into your house”, over “introibo in domum tuam”.^[9][8]

Semantic evolution

Above all the word names a building in which people live, and with it the household or family that lives there: the Supplement adds the part of a building held by one tenant or family and a temporary shelter or tabernacle.^[10][11] In biblical language Israhela hus renders “domus Israel”, the house of Israel as a people.^[10] In verse it could name the ark or a bird's nest, and in Elene ðæt fǣge hūs is the body of the doomed.^[10] Beowulf calls Heorot hūsa sēlest, “the best of houses”.^[12] In the laws the king's house is the royal residence, and Godes hūs are churches.^[13] The Lindisfarne gloss uses it for Latin “domus”, “tectum”, “tabernaculum” and “domicilium”.^[14]

The word lived on as Middle English hous, now English house, with Scots and Yola descendants.^[1]

Timeline

• s. ix¹ – huses for “domatis” in the Corpus Glossary.^[7][8]
• s. ix med. – in hus ðin “into your house” in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.^[9][8]
• 890×897 – in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[15][8]
• s. x³/⁴ – hus for “domus” and “tabernaculum” in the Lindisfarne Gospels gloss.^[16][14]
• s. x/xi – hūsa sēlest “best of houses”, of Heorot, in the Beowulf manuscript.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. a house, a building for people to live in.^[10][11]
2. a dwelling or shelter of any kind, a tent or tabernacle, the ark, a nest.^[10][11]
3. a household, family; a people or race (Israhela hus).^[10][17]

Word family

• bānhūs
• bedhūs
• bæþhūs
• dōmhūs
• eorþhūs
• feohhūs
• gæsthūs
• nicorhūs
• wīghūs
• wītehūs
• hūsstede
• hūsscipe

Descendants

• Middle English hous (→ English house; Scots hoose; Scots oos)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 260
3. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 196
4. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. hūs
5. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 178
6. ^ Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 2.12
7. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 76
8. ^ a b c d e Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
9. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 329
10. ^ a b c d e f Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 568
11. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 573
12. ^ a b Fulk, R. D.; Bjork, Robert E.; Niles, John D., eds. (2008), Klaeber's Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg, 4th ed., Toronto: University of Toronto Press (glossary), p. s.v. hūs
13. ^ Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 119
14. ^ a b Cook, Albert S. (1894), A Glossary of the Old Northumbrian Gospels, Halle: Niemeyer
15. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 499
16. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 291
17. ^ Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 117