Etymologically
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homecoming

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Pronunciation

  • US: /ˈhoʊmˌkʌmɪŋ/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English home + coming,[2][3][4] first as homcomyng.[4][5] It replaced the older homecome,[2][3] hamcume,[5] from Old English hāmcyme (“a coming home, return”),[3][6][5] a compound of hām (“home”) and cyme (“arrival”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The act of returning to one's home or native land: the OED's first record is in Chaucer's Knight's Tale, in a manuscript of about 1405 (the poem dates from about 1385).[2][7] Etymonline dates the form hom-cominge to the mid-13th century,[3] Dictionary.com gives 1325–75,[5] and Merriam-Webster the 15th century.[4]

Semantic evolution

For centuries the word meant only a return or arrival home, whether to a household or to one's native country.[2][3] Before the American sense arose it was used in Britain of the yearly return of natives to the Isle of Man.[3] In North America it became, from 1902, the name of an organized reunion, especially the annual event at which former students come back to a high school, college or university;[2][7] Etymonline records the sense of a high-school dance from 1935,[3] and Dictionary.com dates this sense to 1930–35.[5] Merriam-Webster also uses it of a group of people returning to a place they once regarded as home.[4]

Timeline

  • mid-13th century – the form hom-cominge, a return home (Etymonline).[3]
  • c. 1405 – a return to one's home or native land, in Chaucer's Knight's Tale.[2]
  • 1902 – North America, an organized reunion, especially of former students.[2][7]
  • 1935 – a high-school dance held at such a reunion.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An arrival at or return to one's home or native land: The family planned a quiet dinner for the sailor's homecoming.[8][4][2][9]
  2. (North American) An annual reunion at a high school, college or university for former students, often with a dance and a football game.[8][9][2][10]

Word family

  • homecomer

References

  1. ^ 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 e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d e f Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  6. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  7. ^ 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)
  8. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  10. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press