home

Etymology

From Middle English hōm, from Old English hām, from Proto-West Germanic *haim, from Proto-Germanic *haimaz (“home, village”), from Proto-Indo-European *tḱóymos (“village, home”), from the root *tḱey-. cognates Germanic cognates: see *haimaz. Cognate with Irish caoimh (“dear”), Lithuanian kaimas (“village”), šeima (“family”), Albanian komb (“nation, people”), Old Church Slavonic сѣмь (sěmĭ, “seed”), Ancient Greek κώμη (kṓmē, “village”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱey- (“to lie”) (compare Hittite [script needed] (kittari, “it lies”), Ancient Greek κεῖμαι (keîmai, “to lie down”), Latin civis (“citizen”), Avestan 𐬯𐬀𐬉𐬙𐬈 (saēte, “he lies, rests”), Sanskrit शये (śáye, “he lies”)).

noun

1. A dwelling.
   1. One’s own dwelling place; the house or structure in which one lives; especially the house in which one lives with one's family; the habitual abode of one’s family.
      Thither for ease and soft repose we come: / Home is the sacred refuge of our life; / Secured from all approaches, but a wife. 1808, John Dryden, edited by Walter Scott, The Works of John Dryden
      Home! home! sweet, sweet home! / There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home. 1822, John Howard Payne, Home! Sweet Home!
      If we now say that "woman's place is in the home," it is not because men put her there, but because the home became the capitol of women's mysteries. 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 132
      Rock-filled torrents smashed vehicles and homes, burying victims under rubble and sludge. 2013-06-29, “High and wet”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 28
   2. The place (residence, settlement, country, etc.), where a person was born and/or raised; childhood or parental home; home of one’s parents or guardian.
      The rights listed in the UNCRC cover all areas of children's lives such as their right to have a home and their right to be educated. 2004, Jean Harrison, Home
      Does she still live at home? - No, she moved out and got an apartment when she was 18, but she still lives in the city.
   3. The abiding place of the affections, especially of the domestic affections.
      He enter’d in the house—his home no more, / For without hearts there is no home;[…] 1821, George Gordon Byron, Don Juan, canto III
   4. A house that has been made home-like, to suit the comfort of those who live there.
      It's what you bring into a house that makes it a home
   5. A place of refuge, rest or care; an asylum.
      a home for outcasts
      a home for the blind
      a veterans' home
      Instead of a pet store, get your new dog from the local dogs’ home.
   6. (by extension) The grave; the final rest; also, the native and eternal dwelling place of the soul.
      […] because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets: […] 1769, King James Bible, Oxford Standard text, Ecclesiastes 12:5
2. One’s native land; the place or country in which one dwells; the place where one’s ancestors dwell or dwelt.
   Visiting these famous localities, and a great many others, I hope that I do not compromise my American patriotism by acknowledging that I was often conscious of a fervent hereditary attachment to the native soil of our forefathers, and felt it to be our own Old Home. 1863, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Our Old Home: A Series of English Sketches
   I've been to cities that never close down / From New York to Rio and old London town / But no matter how far or how wide I roam / I still call Australia home. 1980, Peter Allen, song, I Still Call Australia Home
3. The locality where a thing is usually found, or was first found, or where it is naturally abundant; habitat; seat.
   the home of the pine
   […] Flandria, by plenty made the home of war, / Shall weep her crime, and bow to Charles r'estor'd, […] 1706, Matthew Prior, An Ode, Humbly Inscribed to the Queen, on the ẛucceẛs of Her Majeẛty's Arms, 1706, as republished in 1795, Robert Anderson (editor), The Works of the British Poets
   Her eyes are homes of silent prayer, / Nor other thought her mind admits / But, he was dead, and there he sits, / And he that brought him back is there. 1849, Alfred Tennyson, In Memoriam A. H. H.
   Africa is home to so many premier-league diseases (such as AIDS, childhood diarrhoea, malaria and tuberculosis) that those in lower divisions are easily ignored. 2013-09-07, “Nodding acquaintance”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8852
4. A focus point.
   1. (board games) The ultimate point aimed at in a progress; the goal.
      The object of Sorry! is to get all four of your pawns to your home.
   2. (baseball) Home plate.
   3. (lacrosse) The place of a player in front of an opponent’s goal; also, the player.
   4. (Internet) The landing page of a website; the site's homepage.
   5. (music, informal) The chord at which a melody starts and to which it can resolve.
5. (computing) Clipping of home directory.

verb

1. (of animals, transitive) To return to its owner.
   The dog homed.
2. (always with "in on", transitive) To seek or aim for something.
   The missile was able to home in on the target.
   Much like a heat-seeking missile, a new kind of particle homes in on the blood vessels that nourish aggressive cancers, before unleashing a cell-destroying drug. 2008 July, Ewen Callaway, New Scientist