home means of, from, or pertaining to one’s dwelling or country; domestic; not foreign. It carries an Arena rating of 1902, earned across 18 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, home ranks #105 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #106 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #3,623 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #5,335 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books.
home is pronounced /həʊm/.
Why “home” is a great word
Belonging to or characteristic of the familiar, intimate sphere of one’s dwelling or native country; domestic, native, and not foreign. From Middle English hōm, from Old English hām ("home, dwelling, estate"), from Proto-West Germanic *haim, from Proto-Germanic *haimaz ("home, village"), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóymos ("village, home"). Unlike “house,” which denotes a mere physical structure of bricks and beams, or “foreign,” which defines only by opposition and otherness, “home” is an emotional topology. It is the particular warp of a floorboard underfoot, the scent of old paper and simmering broth in a hallway, the way a certain street curves that no other street does—less a location than an extension of the self, where the walls remember and the air fits like a second skin.
Etymology
From Middle English hōm, from Old English hām, from Proto-West Germanic *haim, from Proto-Germanic *haimaz (“home, village”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóymos (“village, home”), from the root *tḱey-. Doublet of heyem. Cognates Cognate with Scots hame (“home”), Yola haime, hime, hyme (“home”), Saterland Frisian Heem (“home”), Alemannic German haim, hei, heim, hemmu (“home”), Bavarian hama, hame (“home”), Cimbrian hòam, huam (“home”), Dutch heem, heim (“home”), German Heim (“home”), Limburgish heim, Héïm (“home”), Luxembourgish Heem (“home”), Mòcheno hoa'm (“home”), Vilamovian ham, hām, haom (“home”), Yiddish היים (heym, “home”), Danish hjem (“home”), Faroese, Icelandic heim (“home”), heimur (“world”), Norwegian Bokmål heim, hjem (“home”), Norwegian Nynorsk heim (“home”), Swedish hem (“home”
adj
- Of, from, or pertaining to one’s dwelling or country; domestic; not foreign.e.g.“home manufactures”
- That strikes home; direct, pointed.e.g.“a home truth”
- Personal, intimate.e.g.“I hardly knew what I answered him, but, by degrees I tranquillised, as I found he forbore distressing me any further, by such Home strokes […].” — 1778, Frances Burney, Journals & Letters, Penguin, published 2001, page 91:
- Relating to the home team (the team at whose venue a game is played).e.g.“the home end, home advantage, home supporters”
adv
- To one's home.; To one's place of residence or one's customary or official location.e.g.“go home”
- To one's home.; To one's place of birth.
- To one's home.; To the place where it belongs; to the end of a course; to the full length.e.g.“She drove the nail home”
- To one's home.; To the home page.e.g.“Click here to go home.”
- At or in one's place of residence or one's customary or official location; at home.e.g.“1975-1976, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure
I'm certainly not the type to sit home waiting up for hubbie every night.”
- To a full and intimate degree; to the heart of the matter; fully, directly.
- into the goal
- into the right, proper or stowed positione.g.“sails sheeted home”
noun
- A dwelling.; 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.
- A dwelling.; The place (residence, settlement, country, etc.), where a person was born or raised; a childhood or parental home; the home of one’s parents or guardian.e.g.“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:
- A dwelling.; The abiding place of the affections, especially of the domestic affections.e.g.“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:
- A dwelling.; A house that has been made homelike, to suit the comfort of those who live there.e.g.“It's what you bring into a house that makes it a home”
- A dwelling.; A place of refuge, rest or care; an asylum.e.g.“a home for outcasts”
- A dwelling.; The grave; the final rest; also, the native and eternal dwelling place of the soul.e.g.“[…] because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets: […]” — 1769, King James Bible, Oxford Standard text, Ecclesiastes 12:5
- A dwelling.; Anything that serves the functions of a home, as comfort, safety, sense of belonging, etc.e.g.“The rights of modern transsexual women and men to live in the sex that is "home".” — 2007 January 10, Leslie Feinberg, “1976 WWP pamphlet found answers in Marxism”, in Workers World:
- One’s native land; the place or country in which one dwells; the place where one’s ancestors dwell or dwelt.
- The locality where a thing is usually found, or was first found, or where it is naturally abundant; habitat; seat.e.g.“the home of the pine”
- A focus point.; The ultimate point aimed at in a progress; the goal.e.g.“The object of Sorry! is to get all four of your pawns to your home.”
- A focus point.; Home plate.
- A focus point.; The place of a player in front of an opponent’s goal; also, the player.
- A focus point.; The landing page of a website; the site's homepage.
- A focus point.; The chord at which a melody starts and to which it can resolve.
- A key that when pressed causes the cursor to go to the first character of the current line, or in a web browser to the top of the web page.
verb
- To return to its owner.e.g.“The dog homed.”
name
- A habitational surname from Old English.
- A number of places in the United States, all apparently meaning home, a place to live:; An unincorporated community in Franklin Township, Marshall County, Kansas.
- A number of places in the United States, all apparently meaning home, a place to live:; An unincorporated community in Rayne Township, Indiana County, Pennsylvania.
- A number of places in the United States, all apparently meaning home, a place to live:; A census-designated place in Pierce County, Washington.
- A number of places in the United States, all apparently meaning home, a place to live:; An unincorporated community in Braxton County, West Virginia.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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