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Origin and history of home

home(n.)

Middle English hom, from Old English ham, home "dwelling place, house, abode, fixed residence; estate; village; region, country," from Proto-Germanic *haimaz "home," which is reconstructed to be from a suffixed form of PIE root *tkei- "to settle, dwell, be home."

Figuratively as the seat or location (of faith, love, etc.) from late Old English. As an adverb in Old English; as an adjective from 1550s. Early plural sometimes was hamen, homen.

Germanic cognates include Old Frisian hem "home, village," Old Norse heimr "residence; village; world," heima "home," Danish hjem, Middle Dutch heem, German Heim "home," Gothic haims "village." The old Germanic sense of "village" is preserved in English place names in -ham, German -heim, etc., 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]

At home "in one's house" is from Old English; by late 14c. as "in a congenial environment," hence "at one's ease" (1510s). The slang phrase make (oneself) at home "become comfortable in a place one does not live" dates from 1892.

Home guard "local volunteer defense force" is by 1836. To keep the home fires burning is a song title from 1914; home-fire as symbolic of family life is by 1892 (compare hearth).

Home movie "film of one's own domestic circle and activities" is from 1919. Home computer, in reference to one designed for recreational or educational use at home, is attested from 1967. To be nothing to write home about "unremarkable" is from 1907. In Middle English the long home was "the grave."

Home economics as a school course is attested by 1899; the phrase itself by 1879 as "household management," which is the simple sense of economy, the phrase is thus etymologically redundant.

Home as the goal in a sport or game is by 1778. Home base in baseball is attested by 1856; home plate by 1867. Home team in sports is by 1869; home field "grounds belonging to the local team" is by 1802 (the 1800 citation in OED 2nd ed. print is a date typo, as it refers to baseball in Spokane Falls). Home-field advantage is attested by 1914 in reference to U.S. football teams winning more often at home.

home(v.)

1765, "go home" (in reference to pigeons, implied in homing), from home (n.). The meaning "be guided to a destination by radio signals, etc." (of missiles, aircraft, etc.) is by 1920. Related: Homed. Old English hamian meant "to establish in a home."

also from 1765

Entries linking to home

economy(n.)

1530s, "household management," from Latin oeconomia (source of French économie, Spanish economia, German Ökonomie, etc.), from Greek oikonomia "household management, thrift," from oikonomos "manager, steward," from oikos "house, abode, dwelling" (cognate with Latin vicus "district," vicinus "near;" Old English wic "dwelling, village," from PIE root *weik- (1) "clan") + nomos "managing," from nemein "manage" (from PIE root *nem- "assign, allot; take").

The meaning "frugality, judicious use of resources" is from 1660s. The sense of "wealth and resources of a country" (short for political economy) is attested from 1650s, but even in the 1780s the American Founders in laying out the new republic generally used economy only as "frugality." So also in that sense in the Federalist, except in one place where full political economy is used.

Col Mason — He had moved without success for a power to make sumptuary regulations. He had not yet lost sight of his object. After descanting on the extravagance of our manners, the excessive consumption of foreign superfluities, and the necessity of restricting it, as well with oeconomical as republican views, he moved that a Committee be appointed to report articles of Association for encouraging by the advice the influence and the example of the members of the Convention, oeconomy[,] frugality[,] and american manufactures. [Madison, Sept. 13, 1787, in Farrand, "Records of the Federal Convention;" the motion was agreed to without opposition]

hamlet(n.)

"small village without a church, little cluster of houses in the country," early 14c., hamelet, from Old French hamelet "small village," diminutive of hamel "village," itself a diminutive of ham "village," from Frankish *haim or some other Germanic source, from Proto-Germanic *haimaz "home" (from PIE root *tkei- "to settle, dwell, be home"); for ending, see -let. Especially a village without a church.