Etymologically
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greenhouse

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 22 October 2026 at 21:50. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈɡɹiːnhaʊs/[1]
  • US: /ˈɡɹːnˌ(h)aʊs/[1]

Etymology

It was formed from English green + house in English.[2][3][4][5] In the gardening sense the first element is the noun green, in its old sense of plants or greenery, while in the pottery sense it is the adjective green, unfired.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A glass building in which plants that need sheltered, regulated conditions are grown: 1664, in John Evelyn's Kalendarium Hortense,[2][6][7] the 1660s in Etymonline.[3] Johnson (1755) defined it as a house where tender plants are sheltered from the weather, quoting the same work of Evelyn.[5]

Semantic evolution

Early greenhouses sheltered tender plants through the winter;[5] the modern sense has widened to any structure of glass or translucent plastic in which climate is regulated for plants.[2] In the pottery trade the word has named, since 1825, the area where unfired ware dries before going into the kiln.[2][6][7] In aviation slang of the Second World War it was used for the glass cover of a cockpit (1941).[2][6] Irish slang used it for a public lavatory, as in Joyce's Ulysses (1922).[8] The phrase greenhouse effect, the warming of a planet's surface by gases that trap heat, is recorded from 1937,[3] and the attributive use greenhouse meaning "of or caused by the greenhouse effect", as in greenhouse gas, from 1974.[7]

Timeline

  • 1664 – a glass building for growing plants.[2][7]
  • 1825 – (ceramics) a drying area for unfired ware.[2]
  • 1922 – (Irish slang) a public lavatory.[8]
  • 1937 – greenhouse effect.[3]
  • 1941 – (aviation slang) a glass cockpit cover.[2]
  • 1974 – attributive, relating to the greenhouse effect.[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A building with glass or clear plastic walls and roof, in which plants are grown or protected under controlled conditions; a glasshouse.
  2. (aviation, slang) The transparent cover of an aircraft's cockpit.
  3. (ceramics) A place where unfired pottery is dried before firing.

Adjective

  1. Relating to or caused by the greenhouse effect: greenhouse emissions.

Word family

  • greenhouse effect
  • greenhouse gas

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  5. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  6. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  7. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com