house
/haʊ̯s/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms houses housen hice housing housed hoose houss
- noun A structure built or serving as an abode of human beings. “This is my house and my family's ancestral home.”
- noun (Hong Kong, only used in names) An apartment building within a public housing estate.
- noun A container; a thing which houses another.
- noun (uncountable) Size and quality of residential accommodations; housing.
- noun A building intended to contain a single household, as opposed to an apartment or condominium or building containing these.
- noun The people who live in a house; a household.
- noun A building used for something other than a residence (typically with qualifying word). “The former carriage house had been made over into a guest house.”
- noun A place of business; a company or organisation, especially a printing press, a publishing company, or a couturier. “A small publishing house would have a contract with an independent fulfillment house.”
- verb (transitive) To keep within a structure or container. “The car is housed in the garage.”
- verb (transitive) To admit to residence; to harbor.
- verb To take shelter or lodging; to abide; to lodge.
- verb (transitive, astrology) To dwell within one of the twelve astrological houses.
- verb (transitive) To contain or cover mechanical parts.
- verb (transitive) To contain one part of an object for the purpose of locating the whole. “The joists were housed into the side walls, rather than being hung from them.”
- verb (obsolete) To drive to a shelter.
- verb (obsolete) To deposit and cover, as in the grave.
- noun (music) House music.
- proper noun More generally, a shortened name for any chamber of a legislature that is named "House of...", especially where the other chamber(s) are not so named, or where there is no other chamber (unicameral).
- proper noun A village in Quay County, New Mexico, United States.
- proper noun An unincorporated community in Pitt County, North Carolina, United States.
Synonyms
shop store accommodate harbor harbour host put up enclose firm business firm sign of the zodiac star sign sign mansion planetary house family household home menage theater theatre domiciliate
Etymology
From Middle English hous, hus, from Old English hūs (“dwelling, shelter, house”), from Proto-West Germanic *hūs, from Proto-Germanic *hūsą (“house”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kews-, from *(s)kewH- (“to cover, hide”). More at hose.
Eclipsed non-native Middle English mees, meson, measoun (“house”), borrowed from Anglo-Norman mes, mies, meis, maisun (“house”). The uncommon plural form housen is from Middle English husen, housen. (The Old English nominative plural was simply hūs.)
Cognate with Scots hoose, oos (“house”), Yola heouse, houze, howze (“house”), North Frisian hüs (“house”), Saterland Frisian Huus, Húus (“house”), West Frisian hûs (“house”), Alemannic German hous, hus, husch, hüs, hüüsch (“house”), Bavarian, Cimbrian, Mòcheno haus (“house”), Central Franconian Haus, Hous, Huus (“home”), Dutch huis (“house”), Dutch Low Saxon hoes, huus (“house”), German Haus, Hauß (“house”), German Low German Huus (“house”), Limburgish hoes, Huus (“house”), Luxembourgish Haus (“house”), Vilamovian haojs, haus, hoüz (“house”), Yiddish הויז (hoyz, “house”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish hus (“house”), Elfdalian aus (“house”), Faroese and Icelandic hús (“house”), Crimean Gothic hus (“house”); also Cornish kudha (“to conceal, hide”), Welsh cuddio (“to hide”), Latin cutis (“human skin; hide, leather”), Ancient Greek κεύθω (keúthō, “to cover, hide”), Tocharian A kāc (“hide, skin”), Sanskrit स्कुनाति (skunāti, “to cover”).
From Middle English housen, from Old English hūsian, from Proto-Germanic *hūsōną (“to house, live, dwell”), from the noun (see above). Compare Dutch huizen (“to live, dwell, reside”), German Low German husen (“to live, dwell, reside”), German hausen (“to live, dwell, reside”), Norwegian Nynorsk husa (“to house”), Faroese húsa (“to house”), Icelandic húsa (“to shelter, house”).
Probably from The Warehouse, a nightclub in Chicago, Illinois, USA, where the music became popular around 1985.
* As an English surname, from the noun house.
* Also as an English surname, variant of Howes.
* Also as a topographic English surname, from a derivative of Old English hyse (“place overgrown with water plants”), from hos (“bramble, thorn, sprout”). This may have also made its way into Hose, Huss.
* As a German surname, calqued from the surname Haus.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A structure intended or used as a habitation or shelter for animals of any kind; but especially, a building or edifice for the habitation of man; a dwelling place, a mansion.
- noun Household affairs; domestic concerns; particularly in the phrase to keep house. See below.
- verb To take or put into a house; to shelter under a roof; to cover from the inclemencies of the weather; to protect by covering; as, to house one's family in a comfortable home; to house farming utensils; to house cattle.
- verb To drive to a shelter. Shak.
Etymology [OE. hous, hus, AS. h; akin to OS. & OFries. h, D. huis, OHG. h, G. haus, Icel. h, Sw. hus, Dan. huus, Goth. gudh, house of God, temple; and prob. to E. hide to conceal. See Hide, and cf. Hoard, Husband, Hussy, Husting.]
Etymology [AS. h.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “house”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details