household
(ˈhaʊshəʊld)
Forms: 4–7 housholde, houshould, 4–8 houshold, 5 houshoold, housold, 5–6 howsold(e, householde, north. hous-, howshald(e, 5–7 howshold(e, 6 houssold, howseholde, howshould, 5– household.
[f. house n.1 + hold n.1 Cf. MDu. huushoud, huysholt, Ger. haushalt housekeeping, Sw. hushåll household, family; also Ger. haushaltung in senses 1, 2, 3.]
I. † 1. The ‘holding’ or maintaining of a house or family; housekeeping; domestic economy. (In quot. 1585, Dwelling, residence: see also 5.) Obs.
| 1489 Caxton Faytes of A. i. i. 2 To spynne on the distaf & ocupie theim in thynges of houshold. 1529 Wolsey in Four C. Eng. Lett. 10 Evry thyng mete for houssold vnprovydyd and furnyshyd. 1542 Boorde Dyetary i. (1870) 242 That he begyn howseholde. 1576 Newton Lemnie's Complex. (1633) 76 The pleasant and delightfull furniture in every point for household, wonderfully rejoyced me. 1585 T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. iv. xv. 129 Tharse..being the place of birth and houshold of S. Paul. |
† 2. The contents or appurtenances of a house collectively; household goods, chattels, or furniture; household-stuff.
Obs.| 1382 Wyclif Ezek. xxxviii. 13 And take pertenaunce of houshold and substaunce. 1420 E.E. Wills (1882) 52 Also I will þat my wyffe haue all my housholde holy. 1484 Caxton Fables of Poge (1889) 1 Dysshes, pottes, pannes, and suche other houshold. 1621 Bury Wills (Camden) 167 Desiringe him..he would bestowe some of my howsholde of my brother Nicke. 1709 E. W. Donna Rosina 110 Devout Souls..have sent their Beds hither and some other Household. |
3. a. The inmates of a house collectively; an organized family, including servants or attendants, dwelling in a house; a domestic establishment.
| 1387–8 T. Usk Test. Love ii. iii. (Skeat) l. 126 In to myne housholde hastelye I woll that thou entre. c 1400 Mandeville (1839) xix. 209 In on House men maken 10 Housholdes. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 250/2 Howsholde, familia. 1529 More in Four C. Eng. Lett. 12 Be of good cheere, and take all the howsold with you to Church. 1584 D. Powel Lloyd's Cambria 105 With all his children and houshold to be murthered. 1624 Sanderson 12 Serm. (1637) 113 To give to every one of the houshold his appointed portion at the appointed seasons. 1719 Young Busiris iii. i, The gates are barr'd, And all the houshold is compos'd to rest? 1841 W. Spalding Italy & It. Isl. III. 87 The pomp of the vice-regal household was no small addition to the other national burdens. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) V. 103 The master of the household should be up early and before all his servants. |
| fig. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 90 b, Certaynly they be y⊇ housholde of Sathan and progeny of pryde. 1526 Tindale Gal. vi. 10 Vnto them which are off the housholde of fayth. 1548–9 (Mar.) Bk. Com. Prayer Collect 22nd Sund. after Trin., To kepe thy housholde the churche in continuall godlines. |
b. spec. the Household = the royal or imperial household.
| c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xxiii. 108 To kepe þat nane entre in at þe dure bot þai þat þe emperour will, oless þan he be of þe houshald. 1647 Clarendon Hist. Reb. iii. §213 The earl of Pembroke..Lord Chamberlain of the household. 1707 Chamberlayne's St. Gt. Brit. ii. xiv. 183 (heading) Of the Troops of the Houshold. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xviii. IV. 121 He had two good places, one in the Treasury, the other in the household. Ibid. xxii. IV. 776 Retaining his place of Comptroller of the Household. 1880 Disraeli Endym. lxx, Gentlemen expecting high places in the Household, and under-secretaryships of state. |
4. techn. Elliptically for
household bread,
coal, etc.: see 8.
| 1638 Penkethman Artach. C ij b, The 1d. houshold (being Bread made of common wheat,) ought to weigh two penny white of the same course Cocket. 1854 Ronalds & Richardson Chem. Technol. I. Pref. 6 [Coal] Household 19,000,000, Iron Works 13,000,000. 1863 S. L. J. Life in South I. xv. 301 Such a display of ‘households’ and ‘calicos’, as coloured prints are called. 1875 Ure's Dict. Arts I. 477 Batch bread is made of best flour and of households, or flour of second quality. 1886 Fallows Suppl. Dict., Households, a technical name among millers for the best flour made from red wheat, with a small portion of white wheat mixed. |
† 5. Phrases.
to hold or keep (a, one's) household: to ‘keep house’;
to keep open household = to keep open house (see
house n.1 18 a, b).
in or of household with: in or of the same household with; familiar with.
Obs.| c 1430 Hymns Virg. 61 Þanne comeþ þe .vij. deedli synnes With þe wickid aungil housholde to holde. 1463 Paston Lett. No. 469 II. 129 Ther to dwelle and abide, and kepe howsold. 1467 Ord. Worcester c. 33 in Eng. Gilds (1870) 389 Eny craftiesman, artificer, or other, dwellynge or holdynge houshold, in Cites, Boroughez. 1548 Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Matt. iv. 33 Desire to haue in houshold with them, men, &c. 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 215 At Christmasse, at which tyme she promissed to keepe open houshold. 1581 G. Pettie Guazzo's Civ. Conv. ii. (1586) 52 Those that be of householde with us. |
II. attrib. and
Comb. 6. attrib. passing into adj. a. Of or belonging to a household, domestic.
| 1382 Wyclif Matt. x. 25 Ȝif thei han clepid the husbonde man Belzebub, hou myche more his housholde meynee? 1535 Coverdale Ecclus. vi. 11 Deale faithfully with thy housholde folke. 1578 Timme Caluine on Gen. 301 Abram..with his housholdarmie, fell upon their enemies. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 524 All their most precious houshold furniture. 1643 Milton Divorce To Parlt. Eng., This houshold unhappines. 1726 Ayliffe Parergon 338 A Legacy of Housholdgoods or Furniture. 1738 Wesley Ps. lxxx. vii, Our bitter Household Foes abound. 1841 W. Spalding Italy & It. Isl. I. 299 Statues, mosaics, household utensils, and other antique treasures. 1847 Emerson Poems, Saadi 176 That blessed gods in servile masks Plied for thee thy household tasks. |
b. Of or belonging to the royal household, as
household appointment,
household office, etc.;
household troops, troops specially employed to guard the person of the sovereign: in Great Britain the Life Guards, the Royal Horse Guards, and the Grenadier, Coldstream, Scots, Irish, and Welsh Guards; so
household brigade,
household cavalry,
household infantry, etc.
| 1711 Lond. Gaz. No. 4843/2 The Houshold Troops are under the Gates of Cambray. 1841 Elphinstone Hist. Ind. II. 183 In most Asiatic despotisms, the king first trusts to the army against the people, and then to a body of foreign household troops, or Maml{uacu}ks, against the rest of the army. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 295 The household infantry consisted of two regiments. |
c. fig. Familiar, intimate, homely.
arch.| c 1450 tr. De Imitatione iii. xxiv. 95 Þine familiars & householde men. 1592 R. D. Hypnerotomachia 39 b, Growing into some houshold familiaritie. 1761 Sterne Tr. Shandy III. 94 Good plain houshold judgment. 1840 De Quincey Style iv. (1860) 291 More household, more natural, less elaborate. 1852 Hawthorne Tanglew. T., Circe's P. (1879) 182 What a domestic, household, homelike sound it is! |
7. Objective
Combs., as
household-keeper,
household-keeping (see 5),
household-orderer,
household-ordering.
| 1479 Bury Wills (Camden) 51 Euery housold keper in the town that I dwelle jnne. 1552 Huloet, Housholde kepynge, familiam fouens. Ibid., Housholde orderer, or gouernor, oeconomicus. Ibid., Houshold orderyng,..oeconomia. |
8. Special
Combs.:
household appliance, a piece of equipment (
e.g. a vacuum cleaner) used in the house;
household beer, beer of ordinary quality for household use;
household book, a book in which household accounts are noted;
household bread, bread for ordinary household use: the application has changed several times between the 16th c., when it was brown bread, and the end of the 19th, when it is white bread made of a second or third quality of flour;
household effects, the movable contents of a house;
household franchise,
suffrage, the right of voting in parliamentary or other elections, consequent upon being a householder within an electoral division: see
householder;
household gods (
Rom. Antiq.), the
Lares and
Penates, divinities supposed to preside over the household, whose images were kept in the
atrium or central room of the house;
fig. the essentials of home life;
household linen, linen for the bedroom, table, etc.;
household loaf, a loaf of
household bread;
† household-man, a domestic male servant or attendant;
household management, the art of running a house;
household name, a name familiar to everyone;
household science orig. N. Amer. = domestic science;
household servant, a servant belonging to the household, a domestic servant;
household snake = house snake 2;
household word, a word or saying in familiar use; a name familiar to everybody.
| 1926 Encycl. Brit. II. 375/2 The outstanding feature in the development of *household appliances..has been the greatly extended use of those operated electrically. 1935 Discovery Sept. 247/2 The fame of Norwich is also spread by its mustard and starch, electrical machinery and household appliances, aircraft, ironwork and other progressive industries. 1957 Encycl. Brit. XI. 813/2 Modern household appliances can be divided into two main headings, electrical and nonelectrical. |
| 1599 M. Hoby Diary 18 Feb. (1930) 104 Then to supper: after, I looked of the *Houshould book, and then went to priuat praers. 1780 S. Pegge in Forme of Cury p. xxxv, The present dean of Carlisle, to whom I stand indebted for his useful notes on the Northumberland-Household Book. 1866 Trollope Belton Est. (ed. 3) II. vi. 145 Though she could not succeed in making retrenchments, she could and did succeed in keeping the household books. 1931 S. Jameson Richer Dust xviii. 503 Mrs. James, pen stirring the clotted ink at the bottom of the bottle, bent close over the pages of her Household Book. |
| 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. i. (1586) 10 b, Two Ovens, one serving for *householde bread, the other for manchet for myne owne table. 1620 Venner Via Recta i. 18 A browne houshold bread agreeable enough for labourers. 1737 Ozell Rabelais I. 256 A Loaf of Houshold (or Brown) Bread. 1818 Todd, Household-bread, bread not of the finest quality: see Cheat-bread. 1859–60 Ure's Dict. Arts s.v. Bread (L.), Our household bread [is made], of the whole substance of the grain without the separation either of the fine flour or coarse bran. |
| 1891 [see effect n. 4 b]. 1933 Burlington Mag. May p. xv/2 The English furniture generally is of better quality than that associated with ‘*household effects’. |
| 1866 Bright Sp. Ho. Com. 13 Mar., If..he approved a 10l. *household franchise in boroughs he must do so also in the counties. 1884 Gladstone Sp. Ho. Com. 28 Feb., The household franchise..now..the principal franchise of the cities and towns of this country. |
| 1614 T. Adams Devil's Banquet 32 Those [Lares et Lemures] *household-Gods, or rather household-Goblins and Deuils. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 535 And with him all his Patrimony bears: His House and Houshold Gods! 1818 Byron Lett. 10 Sept., The deliberate desolation piled upon me, when I stood alone upon my hearth, with my household gods shivered around me. |
| 1642 Lady Sussex Let. in F. P. Verney Memoirs (1892) I. xi. 253 She gives all her linen to to of hur grand⁓children not naminge hur *householde linen, but in generly hur linen. 1811 Jane Austen Sense & Sens. I. v. 56 Household linen, plate, china, and books. 1967 E. Short Embroidery & Fabric Collage iii. 72 (caption) A basically simple design which could be adapted to almost any article of household linen. |
| 1594 Crompton Jurisdiction 226 b, A penie wheaten loafe, A halfe⁓penie *houshold loafe. 1710 Abstr. Act 8 Anne c. 19 in Lond. Gaz. No. 4681/1 The White Loaves are One Half, and the Wheaten Three Quarters of the Weight of Houshold Loaves. |
| 1477 Norton Ord. Alch. iv. in Ashm. (1652) 49 Take never thereto no *Houshold-man, Thei be soone weary as I tell cann. 1591 Lambarde Archeion (1635) 195 The like [penaltie] upon the taker of any Liverie, except he were his Household-man. |
| 1742 Richardson Pamela (ed. 3) III. ix. 50 Let your Servants, under your Direction, do all that relates to *Houshold Management. 1801 Jane Austen Let. 14 Jan. (1932) I. 111 It will be an amusement to Mary to superintend their Household management, and abuse them for expense. 1861 Mrs. Beeton (title) The book of household management. |
| 1862 Tennyson Idylls, Dedication l. 40 A Prince indeed, Beyond all titles, and a *household name, Here⁓after, thro' all times, Albert the Good. 1907 W. Russell Arterial Hypertonus v. 34 The names of Claude Bernard, Brown-Séquard, Waller, and Schiff are ‘household names’ in this connection. 1958 Times 27 Feb. 11/2 Our first encounter with so many household names in his list which were then unknown. 1969 New Yorker 29 Nov. 166/2 Spiro Agnew was then a household name only in his own household. 1970 Times 11 Mar. 21/1 (Advt.), We produce packs for a lot of household names. |
| 1938 Univ. Toronto Cal. 1938–39 (verso of title-p.), In the Faculty of *Household Science, the University offers courses leading to the degree of Bachelor of Household Science. 1953 Univ. London Cal. 1953–54 464 Queen Elizabeth College... Admitted in 1928 as a School of the University for the B.Sc. Degree in Household and Social Science and for the Degree of B.Sc. (Nutrition) and B.Sc. (Household Science) in 1953. 1963 F. F. Laidler Gloss. Home Econ. Educ. 46 Household science, a comprehensive study of the scientific, technological and sociological aspects of the household. |
| 1495 Trevisa's Barth. De P.R. vi. xxii. (W. de W.), *Housholde seruauntes besyly helpe and folowe eche other. 1840 Thirlwall Greece VII. 335 He sent back his brother Menelaus..together with his private baggage, and household servants. |
| 1894 W. Crooke Pop. Relig. & Folk-Lore N. India vii. 276 (heading) The *household snake. 1921 A. Evans Palace of Minos I. 509 Such a household snake is known, indeed, as domachitsa or ‘house-mother’. Ibid., In its homely origin, from the religious tending of the household snake, the cult itself may be supposed to be of old indigenous tradition. 1962 R. W. Hutchinson Prehist. Crete viii. 208 The cult of the household snake has not entirely died out even now. |
| 1866 Bright Sp. at Manchester 20 Nov., *Household or rating suffrage has existed for centuries in our parishes. |
| 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, iv. iii. 52 Our Names, Familiar in his mouth as *household words. 1833 L. Ritchie Wand. by Loire 157 The children of genius, whose names are as house-hold words in the mouths of their fellow⁓men. 1888 Burgon Lives 12 Gd. Men I. iv. 375 A household word wherever the English language is spoken. |
Hence (
nonce-wds.)
† ˈhouseholdment, a piece of household furniture.
ˈhouseholdness (see 6 c), domestic quality.
† ˈhouseholdy a. [
cf. early
mod.Du. huyshoudigh (Kilian)], belonging to or befitting a household.
| 1557 Tusser 100 Points Husb. v, At no tyme to much, but haue alway ynough: is housholdy fare, and the guyse of the plough. 1717 N. Riding Rec. VIII. 171 One oak chest, one arm chair with some other odd householdments within the Township. 1833 Lytton England iv. ii, Wordsworth is German from his singular householdness of feeling. |