Etymologically
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house

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /haʊs/ (noun), /ˈhaʊ.zɪz/ (plural); /haʊz/ (verb)[1][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English hous, inherited from Old English hūs (“dwelling, shelter, house”),[3][4][5] from Proto-Germanic *hūsan.[5][4] Its cognates include Dutch huis, German Haus and Old Norse hús; in Gothic it is found only in Gothic 𐌲𐌿𐌸𐌷𐌿𐍃 (gudhūs, “temple, literally god-house”), the usual Gothic word for “house” being different.[5][6][7] Its further origin is unknown;[8][7] the OED and Merriam-Webster connect it with the root of hide,[5][9] and Klein traces it to a root meaning “to cover, hide”.[10][11] The verb is inherited from Middle English housen, inherited from Old English hūsian (“to take into a house”), from the noun.[5][4]

A separate, rare house, a cloth covering for a horse (see housing), is from Old French houce, of Germanic origin.[7][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A dwelling, shelter, building used as a residence (Old English hūs, about 725, in Beowulf).[11][5]

Semantic evolution

Its Old English plural was hūs, unchanged;[12] huses appeared in the 12th century and houses from the 14th.[12] The meaning “family, including ancestors and descendants, especially a noble one”, as in the House of York, is from about 1000.[5] A religious house, meaning both the building and the community, dates from the late 14th century, and the same double sense was later used of colleges (1530s).[5] The astrological house is first attested in the late 14th century.[5] From the 1540s the word was used of a legislative body, transferred from the building where it meets;[5] the House of Lords (mid 16th century) preceded the House of Commons (early 17th century).[13][11] A theatre audience has been called the house since the 1660s, whence to bring down the house,[5][14] and a place of business since the 1580s.[5] House and home have been paired since about 1200, and on the house, free, dates from 1889.[5] In Maine, Vermont and other parts of New England the word is often pronounced like “haouse”.[15] House music (1986) was probably named after the Warehouse, a Chicago nightclub.[12][7][13]

Timeline

  • c. 725 – Old English hūs, in Beowulf.[11]
  • c. 1000 – a family or lineage, and the Old English verb hūsian.[5][4]
  • c. 1200 – house and home.[5]
  • late 14th century – a religious house; an astrological house.[5]
  • 1508 – a brothel.[16]
  • 1530s – a college.[5]
  • 1540s – a legislative assembly.[5]
  • 1660s – a theatre audience.[5]
  • 1794 – house arrest.[5]
  • 1889 – on the house.[5]
  • 1986 – house music.[12]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A building in which people live, especially a family; a dwelling.
  2. The people living in a house; a household.
  3. A building used for a particular purpose: a house of worship; a shelter for animals or things.
  4. A family line, especially a noble or royal one: the House of York.
  5. A business firm: a publishing house.
  6. A legislative assembly or its building: the House of Commons.
  7. A theatre or its audience: a full house.
  8. A residence for students, members of a religious order or the like; a division of a school.
  9. (astrology) One of the twelve divisions of the heavens.
  10. House music, a style of electronic dance music.

Verb

  1. To provide with living quarters; to lodge.
  2. To store or keep in a building; to contain or enclose: buildings that house offices.
  3. To fit into a socket or mortise.
  4. To take shelter; to dwell.

Word family

  • houseful
  • houseless
  • houselessness

Usage notes

Random House notes that dwelling is now chiefly poetic or legal, residence formal and suggestive of size and elegance, and house the ordinary word for the building, while home carries the idea of family and affection.[17]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  3. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  4. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  7. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  11. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  12. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  13. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  14. ^ Brewer, E. Cobham (1898), Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, new ed., London: Cassell
  15. ^ Hendrickson, Robert (2008), The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, 4th ed., New York: Facts on File
  16. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  17. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House