Meaning: house

Illustrative Context

His house is at the edge of the village.

Target Sense

• The most generic term for a house in the prototypical sense of a fixed structure, above ground, where people (especially a family) habitually live, and usually sleep overnight. Seen in contrast to buildings of other types and for other purposes, e.g. school, church, train station, etc..
• The term entered should be the default one that would be used in the prototypical context of a single, free-standing house which in many cultures would be where one family or ‘household’ lives independently. Do not enter terms such as apartment, flat (or even room), that explicitly refer to only parts of a (typically larger) building, in which multiple different families or ‘households’ each have their separate living spaces.
• The target term in English is only house (for living in), not the vaguer hypernym building (of any type or for any function). Do not enter an equivalent to building. Only in a language where a single lexeme is the default term in both scopes — i.e. either specific house or the looser extension to building — should that dual term be entered, e.g. Russian дом/dom.
• The target sense is the literal, neutral one of the physical building, as seen objectively by anyone, and not from the subjective perspective of the person who lives there. That is, the target term in English is only house, and definitely not home, because that conveys additional and more specific (or figurative) senses: of attachment, belonging, identity, origin or return (as in homeland). Again, some languages may use (variants of) the same term for both English lexemes, but do not enter any additional lexeme more akin to English home.
• Enter only the default, generic term for house as defined above. Avoid narrower terms specific to any particular type of house, e.g. hut, cottage, etc..
• Enter the neutral term in basic vocabulary: avoid lexemes with additional connotations and value judgements, e.g. mansion, hovel.
• Avoid terms specific to either markedly elevated or lower registers, e.g. abode, dwelling, pad, French demeure or French slang baraque.
• Avoid terms specific to figurative extensions of the English lexeme house, e.g. lineage, family, full set, school class, etc..