home (n.)

home (n.)

Old English ham “dwelling place, house, abode, fixed residence; estate; village; region, country,” from Proto-Germanic *haimaz “home” (source also of Old Frisian hem “home, village,” Old Norse heimr “residence, world,” heima “home,” Danish hjem, Middle Dutch heem, German heim “home,” Gothic haims “village”), from PIE *(t)koimo-, suffixed form of root *tkei- “to settle, dwell, be home.” As an adjective from 1550s. The old Germanic sense of “village” is preserved in place names and in hamlet.

Home‘ in the full range and feeling of [Modern English] home is a conception that belongs distinctively to the word home and some of its Gmc. cognates and is not covered by any single word in most of the IE languages. [Buck]

Slang phrase make (oneself) at home “become comfortable in a place one does not live” dates from 1892 (at home “at one’s ease” is from 1510s). To keep the home fires burning is a song title from 1914. To be nothing to write home about “unremarkable” is from 1907. Home movie is from 1919; home computer is from 1967. Home stretch (1841) is from horse racing (see stretch (n.)). Home economics as a school course first attested 1899; the phrase itself by 1879 (as “household management” is the original literal sense of economy, the phrase is etymologically redundant).

Home as the goal in a sport or game is from 1778. Home base in baseball attested by 1856; home plate by 1867. Home team in sports is from 1869; home field “grounds belonging to the local team” is from 1802 (the 1800 citation in OED 2nd ed. print is a date typo, as it refers to baseball in Spokane Falls). Home-field advantage attested from 1955.

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home (v.)

1765, “to go home,” from home (n.). Meaning “be guided to a destination by radio signals, etc.” (of missiles, aircraft, etc.) is from 1920; it had been used earlier in reference to pigeons (1862). Related: Homedhoming. Old English had hamian “to establish in a home.”

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homely (adj.)

late 14c., “of or belonging to home or household, domestic,” from Middle English hom “home” (see home (n.)) + -ly (1). Sense of “plain, unadorned, simple” (as domestic scenes often were) is late 14c., and extension to “having a plain appearance, without particular beauty of features, crude” took place c. 1400, but survived chiefly in U.S., especially in New England, where it was the usual term for “physically unattractive;” ugly meaning typically “ill-tempered.” In the old sense of “domestic, of or pertaining to domestic life,” homish (1560s) and homelike (1789) have been used.

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homing (n.)

“action of going home,” 1765, in reference to pigeons, verbal noun from home (v.). Of aircraft, later missiles, from 1923. Homing pigeon attested by 1868.

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home front (n.)

also homefront, 1918, from home (n.) + front (n.) in the military sense. A term from World War I; popularized (if not coined) by the agencies running the U.S. propaganda effort.

The battle front in Europe is not the only American front. There is a home front, and our people at home should be as patriotic as our men in uniform in foreign lands. [promotion for the Fourth Liberty Loan appearing in U.S. magazines, fall 1918]

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stay-at-home (n.)

“one not given to roaming or travel,” 1834, from adjectival phrase stay-at-home (1797); see stay (v.1). Especially, in the U.S. Civil War, a disparaging name for an eligible man not volunteering for service. Compare the Middle English surname of Thomas Steyhame, 1381.

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home-brew (n.)

1853, from home-brewed (1711); see home (n.) + brew (v.).

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home page (n.)

also homepage, 1993, from home (n.) + page (n.1).

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home rule (n.)

1860, originally in reference to Ireland, from home (n.) + rule (n.).

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home run (n.)

1856, from home (n.) + run (n.).

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Source: O
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