Haus

Forms

Haus n (genitive Hauses, plural Häuser, diminutive Häuschen or Häuslein)^[1] An older plural without -er survives in place names ending in -hausen.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German hūs, inherited from Old High German hūs, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *hūs, inherited from Proto-Germanic *hūsą (“house”).^[3][1][4] The same word is Old Saxon hūs, Old Frisian hūs, Old English hūs and Old Norse hús, and today Dutch huis, English house and Swedish hus.^[3][5][4] Gothic has it only in the compound Gothic 𐌲𐌿𐌳𐌷𐌿𐍃 (gudhūs, “temple”) and otherwise uses 𐍂𐌰𐌶𐌽 (razn).^[3][6] The New High German diphthong goes back to the Middle High German long vowel, which became /au/ in Bavarian from the 14th century, and the standard spelling rests on that development.^[6]

Its origin is unclear.^[3][7][4] Kluge assumes a connection with Hütte and derives it from Proto-Germanic *hud-s-a-, with loss of the dental and lengthening of the vowel.^[3] He finds a link with Ancient Greek κεῦθος (keûthos, “hiding place, depth”) conceivable but not obvious.^[3][7] Kroonen rejects that comparison, since the related Proto-Germanic *huzda- (“hoard”) points to a root without a laryngeal, and takes the neuter as an s-stem from Proto-Indo-European *kuH- (“to cover”), originally “shelter”.^[4] Pfeifer, Köbler and the Duden dictionary also connect it with the root “to cover”, in the extended form Proto-Indo-European *(s)keus-, which Pfeifer sees also in Hose and Hort, and more widely in Haut.^[5][8][9] Wiktionary mentions an alternative theory of borrowing from an Eastern Iranian language.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German hūs is recorded from the 8th century, in the Benedictine Rule, Isidor, the Muspilli, Tatian, Otfrid and Notker.^[5][10] It meant “house, building, dwelling”, also “temple” and “household, family, lineage”.^[10][8]

Semantic evolution

In Middle High German hūs was also a castle, a town hall, a hut and the household.^[5][11] The alliterating pair Haus und Hof for all one's property goes back to Old High German, and sein Haus bestellen “to set one's house in order”, before death, comes from Isaiah 38:1.^[2] Zu Hause “at home” is chiefly northern, while Central and Southern German prefer heim and daheim.^[2] The word also came to mean a dynasty (das Haus Sachsen) and a business firm, both recorded by Adelung.^[2]

Haus in the sense “parliament” is a semantic loan from English, from the 17th century.^[3] The phrase aus dem Häuschen sein “to be beside oneself” arose around 1800, probably from Häuschen “madhouse”, after the Paris asylum Petites-Maisons.^[3][5][12] The verb hausen (Old High German hūsōn “to dwell”, about 1000) came to mean “to manage badly” in the 15th century and “to lay waste” in the 16th.^[5] hausieren “to peddle from door to door”, häuslich and Haushalt are recorded from the 15th century.^[5]

Timeline

• 8th century – Old High German hūs is recorded.^[5][3]
• c. 1000 – The verb hūsōn “to dwell” appears.^[5]
• 14th century – The long vowel becomes the diphthong /au/ in Bavarian.^[6]
• 15th century – hausieren, häuslich and Haushalt are recorded.^[5]
• 17th century – Häuschen is recorded, and Haus is used for a parliament after English.^[5][3]
• c. 1800 – The phrase aus dem Häuschen sein appears.^[5][12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A building in which people live, a house.^[9][1]
2. A building put up for a particular purpose, often in compounds: Kaufhaus, Krankenhaus.^[9][2]
3. One's home, in phrases: zu Hause, nach Hause.^[9][1]
4. (colloquial) All the people living in a house.^[9]
5. The people working in a building, such as a firm's staff or a theatre's audience: vor vollem Haus spielen.^[9][1]
6. (formal) A family; a household.^[9]
7. A dynasty, a ruling family: das Haus Habsburg.^[9][2]
8. (colloquial, jocular) A person: Er ist ein lustiges Haus.^[9]
9. A legislative chamber, parliament.^[13][3]
10. (astrology) One of the twelve sections of the zodiac.^[9]

Word family

• Häuschen
• hausen
• behausen
• Behausung
• Gehäuse
• häuslich
• Haushalt
• haushalten
• hausieren
• Häusler
• Hausfrau
• Rathaus

Related words

• Hütte
• Haut
• Hose
• Hort
• English house

Usage notes

Haus und Hof is all one's property, and aus dem Häuschen sein is to be wild with excitement.^[9][3] Von Haus aus means “originally, by origin”.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 399
4. ^ a b c d Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
6. ^ a b c Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 10, 640
7. ^ a b Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
10. ^ a b Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 162
11. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
12. ^ a b Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
13. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org