dwelling

Etymology

It is formed from English dwell + -ing,^[2][3][4][5] the gerund of dwellen.^[6][7] The verb dwell is from Old English dwellan (“to mislead, hinder, delay”),^[2][4][8] from Proto-Germanic *dwaljaną (“to hold up, delay; hesitate”),^[1][9] with cognates in Old Norse dvelja (“to delay”), Old High German twellen (“to hinder, delay”) and Middle Dutch dwellen (“to stun, perplex”).^[2][4][8] Hoad holds that the sense "abide, stay" was taken from Old Norse.^[8] It is related to dull.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Delay, tarrying: about 1300 in Havelok, "Dwelling haueth ofte scaþe wrouth",^[7][4] a text the OED dates to about 1330.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The noun followed the verb's shift from "delay" through "stay" to "live in a place".^[8][10] Dwelling as delay was in use until 1572,^[2] and Etymonline also records a sense "stupor" in the early 14th century.^[4] The concrete sense, a place of residence, is first recorded in 1340 in Rolle's Pricke of Conscience,^[2] with Etymonline's date in the mid 14th century and Barnhart's about 1378,^[4][5] and the abstract sense, continued residence, about 1384 in the Wycliffite Bible.^[2] Chaucer has the word for residence, delay and remaining.^[11] From about 1460, in Fortescue, until 1535 it could also mean accommodation.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as "habitation; place of residence; abode".^[12] With on (1832) it is the noun of the verb's sense of spending time on something.^[2][8] Today the word is formal or literary,^[13][14] and it appears in compounds such as dwelling-house, a house used as a residence and not for business, and dwelling-place.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – delay, tarrying (obsolete by 1572).^[7][4] The OED has it from about 1330.^[2]
• early 14th century – a stupor.^[4]
• 1340 – a place of residence.^[2]
• c. 1380 – adjective, remaining, lasting.^[2]
• c. 1384 – continued residence, abode.^[2]
• c. 1460 – accommodation (obsolete by 1535).^[2]
• 1832 – with on, spending time on something.^[2][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. (formal) A house or other place where someone lives; an abode: The flood damaged several dwellings near the river.^{[13][14][15][6]}
2. Continued residence in a place: her long dwelling among the fishermen.^[2][3]
3. (obsolete, 1330–1572) Delay, tarrying.^[2][7]

Word family

• multidwelling
• dwelling house
• lake dwelling
• dwelling place

Related words

• dwell
• dull

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
8. ^ a b c d e f Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
10. ^ Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt