homemaker

Etymology

It is a compound from English home + maker,^[2][3][4] also written with a hyphen.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who runs his or her own household: 1861, in J. Vickers's translation of J. Morata.^[2] Etymonline has an earlier American use, 1856, for a homesteader, and finds it by 1861 as praise for a man who landscaped and gardened his property.^[3] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the household sense to 1867, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate to 1876,^[5][6] and Dictionary.com gives 1885–90.^[4]

Semantic evolution

By 1868 the word was used of a woman as a housewife, in the sense of one who makes the home a place of beauty and refinement for the family.^[3] Etymonline quotes The Independent of that year: "Some wives are admirable housekeepers but not home-makers."^[3] It was often distinguished from a paid housekeeper.^[3][5] Earlier in the United States, from 1856, it meant a homesteader, as later in Australia, and in mid-19th-century England also a domestic manufacturer.^[3] In North America from 1940 a homemaker was also a person employed, often by a social agency, to do the housework for a sick, elderly or disabled person or a family whose mother was absent; this use is first recorded attributively.^[2][5][7]

Timeline

• 1856 – in the United States, a homesteader.^[3]
• 1861 – a person who runs his or her own household.^[2] Etymonline has the same year for a man who landscapes his property.^[3]
• 1868 – of a woman, a housewife.^[3]
• 1940 – in North America, a person employed to do domestic tasks for the sick, elderly or disabled.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (chiefly US and Canadian) A person who manages a household, especially a housewife or mother as distinct from a paid housekeeper: After the twins were born, he became a full-time homemaker.^[5][7][8][2]
2. (US and Canadian) A social worker or helper who looks after a household while the person who usually runs it is ill or absent, or who helps the sick, elderly or disabled with domestic tasks.^[5][7][2]

Word family

• homemaking
• displaced homemaker

Related words

• housewife
• housekeeper

Usage notes

Dictionary.com refers homemaker to its usage note at housewife: most people find housewife acceptable, but some perceive it as insulting because it suggests a lowly status.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b 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 h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin