house

Etymology 1

From Middle English hous, hus, from Old English hūs (“dwelling, shelter, house”), from Proto-West Germanic *hūs, from Proto-Germanic *hūsą (compare Scots hoose, West Frisian hûs, Dutch huis, German Haus, German Low German Huus, Danish hus, Faroese hús, Icelandic hús, Norwegian Bokmål hus, Norwegian Nynorsk hus and Swedish hus), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kews-, from *(s)kewH- (“to cover, hide”). Eclipsed non-native Middle English meson, measoun (“house”), borrowed from Old French maison (“house”). More at hose. The uncommon plural form housen is from Middle English husen, housen. (The Old English nominative plural was simply hūs.)

noun

1. A structure built or serving as an abode of human beings.
   This is my house and my family's ancestral home.
   Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path […]. It twisted and turned,[…]and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn. And, back of the lawn, was a big, old-fashioned house, with piazzas stretching in front of it, and all blazing with lights. 'Twas the house I'd seen the roof of from the beach. 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
   1. (Hong Kong, only used in names) An apartment building within a public housing estate.
2. A container; a thing which houses another.
   The purposes of food are to promote growth, to supply force and heat, and to furnish material to repair the waste which is constantly taking place in the body. Every breath, every thought, every motion, wears out some portion of the delicate and wonderful house in which we live. 1892, Ella Eaton Kellogg, “Foods”, in Science in the Kitchen: A Scientific Treatise on Food Substances and Their Dietetic Properties, Together with a Practical Explanation of the Principles of Healthful Cookery, and a Large Number of Original, Palatable, and Wholesome Recipes, Revised edition, Michigan: Health Publishing Company, page 25
3. (uncountable) Size and quality of residential accommodations.
   Those homeowners who bought too much house, or borrowed against inflated values are now going to be liable for their own poor decisions. Nov 6, 2007, “When Will the Slump End?”, in Newsweek
4. A building intended to contain a single household, as opposed to an apartment or condominium or building containing these.
5. The people who live in a house; a household.
6. A building used for something other than a residence (typically with qualifying word).
   1. 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.
   2. A place of public accommodation or entertainment, especially a public house, an inn, a restaurant, a theatre, or a casino; or the management thereof.
      One more, sir, then I'll have to stop serving you – rules of the house, I'm afraid.
      The house always wins.
   3. (historical) A workhouse.
      To this the pauper replied that he did not want that, and that rather than be sent to the house he would look out for work. 1834, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, Reports from the Commissioners, volume 29, page 169
7. The audience for a live theatrical or similar performance.
   Miss Phyllis Morgan, as the hapless heroine dressed in the shabbiest of clothes, appears in the midst of a gay and giddy throng; she apostrophises all and sundry there, including the villain, and has a magnificent scene which always brings down the house, and nightly adds to her histrionic laurels. 1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, chapter 2, in The Affair at the Novelty Theatre
8. A theatre.
   After her swan-song, there wasn't a dry eye in the house.
   The farce comedy which followed, When We're Married by Charles Burnham, was heartily praised, with the character man singled out for special extollation. The production filled the house. 1964, Northwest Ohio Quarterly, volume 36, page 185
9. (politics) A building where a deliberative assembly meets; whence the assembly itself, particularly a component of a legislature.
   The petition was so ridiculous that the house rejected it after minimal debate.
10. A dynasty; a family with its ancestors and descendants, especially a royal or noble one.
    A curse lay upon the House of Atreus.
11. (figurative) A place of rest or repose.
12. A grouping of schoolchildren for the purposes of competition in sports and other activities.
    I was a member of Spenser house when I was at school.
13. An animal's shelter or den, or the shell of an animal such as a snail, used for protection.
14. (astrology) One of the twelve divisions of an astrological chart.
    Since there was a limited number of planets, houses and signs of the zodiac, the astrologers tended to reduce human potentialities to a set of fixed types and to postulate only a limited number of possible variations. 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 313
15. (cartomancy) The fourth Lenormand card.
16. (chess, now rare) A square on a chessboard, regarded as the proper place of a piece.
17. (curling) The four concentric circles where points are scored on the ice.
18. Lotto; bingo.
19. (uncountable) A children's game in which the players pretend to be members of a household.
    As the babysitter, Emma always acted as the mother whenever the kids demanded to play house.
20. (US, dialect) A small stand of trees in a swamp.
21. (sudoku) A set of cells in a Sudoku puzzle which must contain each digit exactly once, such as a row, column, or 3×3 box in classic Sudoku.

Etymology 2

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”).

verb

1. (transitive) To keep within a structure or container.
   The car is housed in the garage.
   Now, covered concrete troughs to house the cables are laid parallel with the railway lines, cheapening maintenance because of improved accessibility for inspection and repair. 1961 November, “Talking of Trains: The North Eastern's new rail-mounted piling unit”, in Trains Illustrated, page 646
2. (transitive) To admit to residence; to harbor.
3. To take shelter or lodging; to abide; to lodge.
   The federation yesterday vowed to occupy Uotsuri, one of the islands, and build a permanent structure to house six members. October 05, 1996, Robert Whymant, “Tokyo tries to calm islands row”, in The Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, Overseas News, page 15, column 2
4. (transitive, astrology) To dwell within one of the twelve astrological houses.
   Where Saturn houses.
5. (transitive) To contain or cover mechanical parts.
6. (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.
7. (obsolete) To drive to a shelter.
8. (obsolete) To deposit and cover, as in the grave.
9. (nautical) To stow in a safe place; to take down and make safe.
   to house the upper spars
10. (Canada, US, slang, transitive) To eat; especially, to scarf down.
    All you wanna do is drink a fifth, house a lasagna, and hide in a dumpster until that baby stops crying. 2019, Joe Lawson, Shameless (series 10, episode 4, "A Little Gallagher Goes a Long Way")

Etymology 3

Probably from The Warehouse, a nightclub in Chicago, Illinois, USA, where the music became popular around 1985.

noun

1. (music) House music.
   […] their music is influenced as much by Roxy Music and the Ramones as it is by house and techno pioneers. 1998, Colin Larkin, The Virgin Encyclopedia of Dance Music, London: Virgin Books, page 73
   And while hard, minimal techno has become increasingly influenced by house and Oval-esque "glitch" stylistics, Exos keeps it old school on Strength, infusing his own style with the force of hard techno purists Surgeon and Oliver Ho. 2001 March, Philip Sherburne, “Exos, Strength [album review]”, in CMJ New Music Monthly, number 91, Great Neck, N.Y.: College Media, →ISSN, page 66
   The first genre of American dance music to become popular in the United Kingdom was Chicago house. Although music from Detroit was soon imported as well, it was often treated as subcategory of house, and for many years the most common English term for electronic dance music in general was "house" or "acid house". […] During the formative years of techno and house, the musicians involved interacted in various ways. 2006, Mark Jonathan Butler, Unlocking the Groove: Rhythm, Meter, and Musical Design in Electronic Dance Music, Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, page 45