farmhouse

Etymology

It is formed from English farm + house.^[2][3][4][5] Etymonline enters it as “farm-house”, also “farmhouse”.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The main building for living in on a farm: 1533, in J. Bellenden's translation of Livy.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to the 1590s,^[3] Merriam-Webster Unabridged to 1598,^[6] and Dictionary.com to 1590–1600.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The compound rests on the later history of farm, which first meant a fixed rent:^[2][3] land held on lease is recorded from the early 15th century in the OED,^[2] and cultivated land, leased or not, from the 1520s in Etymonline.^[3] The farmhouse is the farm's chief dwelling,^[3][4] distinct from its utility buildings, although Merriam-Webster Unabridged also records the word for the dwelling together with the buildings next to it.^[6] In the mid-20th century it also came to name a loaf of bread, more fully a farmhouse loaf, with a curved top.^[4][7]

Timeline

• 1533 – the main residential building on a farm.^[2][8] Etymonline dates the word to the 1590s and Merriam-Webster Unabridged to 1598.^[3][6]
• mid 20th century – a loaf of bread with a curved top.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The main dwelling on a farm, where the farmer lives: The lane runs past the old farmhouse to the barn.^[7][9][2][6]
2. The dwelling on a farm together with the buildings next to it, such as a barn.^[6][10]
3. (British) A large white loaf baked in a tin, with a curved top; also called a farmhouse loaf.^[7][4]

Usage notes

The first edition of the OED (1895) remarked that dictionaries marked the main stress on the first syllable of this word and of farmyard, but that in England this was unusual except when the word was attributive; the current OED observes that no evidence was given for this.^[2]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
9. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam