Etymograph

English

house

House comes from Middle English hous ‘house, residence’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *hūsą.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*hūsąreconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*hūsreconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150hūs‘dwelling’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500hous‘house’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1598house

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*hūsąreconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*hūsreconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150hūs‘dwelling’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500hous‘house’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1598house

Earliest quotation: 1598, Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Euery Man in His Humour. A Comœdie. […]: “Like a pestilence, it doth infect / The houses…”

The story

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.)

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewH- ‘to cover, conceal, hide’

sky, hide, scum, shun, cystic, hose, hutch, 10 more

through Proto-Germanic *hūsą

housing, 2 more

through Middle English hous ‘house, residence’

hoose

Another origin of house

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)kuH-s-o-muncertain
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*hūsąreconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanic, derivedc. 500 BCE–200 CE*hūsōną‘to house, live, dwell’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*hūsōnreconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150hūsian‘to give shelter, house’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500housen‘to provide shelter or refuge’
  7. Englishtodayhouse

Today it means

noun A structure built or serving as an abode of human beings.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *hūsą / house

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