abstract

→ Norwegian Bokmål: abstrakt

From Middle English abstract, borrowed from Latin abstractus, perfect passive participle of abstrahō (“draw away”), formed from abs- (“away”) + trahō (“to pull, draw”). The verbal sense is first attested in 1542.

xifra

something that concentrates in itself the qualities of something else

(real estate) A summary title of the key points detailing a tract of land, for ownership; abstract of title.

abridgment

statement summarizing the important points of a text


square

→ Welsh: sgwâr

From Middle English square, sqware, squyre; from Old French esquarre, esquerre, (modern French équerre), from Vulgar Latin *exquadra, from Latin ex- + quadro, from quadrus (compare English quad and quadra). Doublet of squad and squadra.
Displaced fēowerecge (fēower nominative + ecg accusative, as in "four-edged").

2006, Macquarie Bank (Australia), press release Macquarie releases Real Estate Market Outlook 2006 - "The World Squared", 21 June 2006 http://www.macquarie.com.au/au/about_macquarie/media_centre/20060621.htm
Just as the basic unit of real estate measurement across the world is the square

2007, Your Estate advertisement for Grindelwald Tasmania http://www.yourestate.com.au/property_12753.php
The house is very large and open and boasts 39 squares of living space plus over 13 squares of decking area on 3 sides and 17 squares of garage and workshop downstairs.

(real estate) A unit of measurement of area, equal to a 10 foot by 10 foot square, i.e. 100 square feet or roughly 9.3 square metres. Used in real estate for the size of a house or its rooms, though progressively being replaced by square metres in metric countries such as Australia.


palace

Palatine Hill
Palatine#Derivative_terms
Pales
palace

From Middle English paleys, from Old French palais, which comes from Latin palātium, from Palātium, in reference to the Palatine (Palatine Hill), one of the seven hills of Rome, where the aristocracy of the Roman Republic—and later, Roman emperors—built large, splendid residences. The name is ultimately either from Etruscan, the same source as Pales (“Pales, the Italic goddess of shepherds, flocks and livestock”), or Latin palus (“stake; enclosure”). Doublet of palazzo and Pfalz.

Official residence of a head of state or other dignitary, especially in a monarchical or imperial governmental system.


unit

Formerly unite, a later form of unity; see unity.

The new apartment complex will have 50 units.

(US, Australia, New Zealand) a measure of housing equivalent to the living quarters of one household; an apartment where a group of apartments is contained in one or more multi-storied buildings or a group of dwellings is in one or more single storey buildings, usually arranged around a driveway.


castle

→ Tongan: kāsolo

From Middle English castle, castel, from late Old English castel, castell (“a town, village, castle”), borrowed from Late Latin castellum (“small camp, fort”), diminutive of Latin castrum (“camp, fort, citadel, stronghold”). Doublet of cashel, castell, castellum, and château.
Parallel borrowings (from Late Latin or Old French) are Scots castel, castell (“castle”), West Frisian kastiel (“castle”), Dutch kasteel (“castle”), German Kastell (“castle”), Danish kastel (“citadel”), Swedish kastell (“citadel”), Icelandic kastali (“castle”), Welsh castell.
The Middle English word was reinforced by Anglo-Norman/Old Northern French castel, itself from Late Latin castellum (“small camp, fort”) (compare modern French château from Old French chastel). If Latin castrum (“camp, fort, citadel, stronghold”) is from Proto-Indo-European *kat- (“hut, shed”), Latin casa (“cottage, hut”) is related. Possibly related also to Gothic 𐌷𐌴𐌸𐌾𐍉 (hēþjō, “chamber”), Old English heaþor (“restraint, confinement, enclosure, prison”). See also casino, cassock.

cog

A large residential building or compound that is fortified and contains many defences; in previous ages often inhabited by a nobleman or king. Also, a house or mansion with some of the architectural features of medieval castles.

The castle was perhaps a figurative name for a close headpiece deduced from its enclosing and defending the head, as a castle did the whole body; or a corruption from the Old French word casquetel, a small or light helmet.

1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 12:

(dated) Any strong, imposing, and stately palace or mansion.


flat

en-adj

flat (comparative flatter, superlative flattest)

flatter (comparative)
flattest (superlative)

bumpy

antonym(s) of “having no variations in altitude”

→ Portuguese: flat

From Middle English flat, a borrowing from Old Norse flatr (compare Norwegian and Swedish flat, Danish flad), from Proto-Germanic *flataz, from Proto-Indo-European *pleth₂- (“flat”); akin to Saterland Frisian flot (“smooth”), German Flöz (“a geological layer”), Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús), Latvian plats, Sanskrit प्रथस् (prathas, “extension”). Doublet of plat and pleyt.
The noun is from Middle English flat (“level piece of ground, flat edge of a weapon”), from the adjective.
The algebraic sense was coined by Serre in a 1956 paper, originally as French plat.

inh

The author added a chapter to flesh out the book's flatter characters.

(figurative) Lacking liveliness or action; depressed; uninteresting; dull and boring.

(authorship, figuratively, especially of a character) Lacking in depth, substance, or believability; underdeveloped; one-dimensional.

(homological algebra, of a module) Such that the tensor product preserves exact sequences. See Flat module on Wikipedia.Wikipedia.


flat

(geometry) A subset of n-dimensional space that is congruent to a Euclidean space of lower dimension.

This same publisher notes pricing is a crucial factor in the mass market field of $1, $1.95 and $2.95 "flats."

1970, The Publishers Weekly, volume 197, page 85:

(publishing) A flat, glossy children's book with few pages.

"When sampling the aperture of a telescope, using auto-collimating flats (ACFs) is more economical"

2013 April 1, Spechler et al., “Advanced Dispersed Fringe Sensing Algorithm for Coarse Phasing Segmented Mirror Telescopes”, in NASA Tech Briefs, retrieved 2021-12-27:


house

en-noun

house (countable and uncountable, plural houses or (dialectal) housen or (chiefly humorous) hice)

houses (plural)
housen (dialectal plural)
hice (humorous plural)

Chinese Pidgin English: houso

Nigerian Pidgin: haus

Tok Pisin: haus

Sranan Tongo: oso
→ Dutch: osso

→ Cantonese: house (hau¹ si²)

→ Japanese: ハウス (hausu)

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewH-der.?
Proto-Germanic *hūsą
Proto-West Germanic *hūs
Old English hūs
Middle English hous
English house
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.)

huis

debating chamber for government politicians

a house divided against itself cannot stand

it takes a heap of living to make a house a home

it takes a heap o' livin' to make a house a home

it takes a lot of living to make a house a home

the call is coming from inside the house

use the master's tools to dismantle the master's house

Those homeowners who bought too much house, or borrowed against inflated values are now going to be liable for their own poor decisions.

2007 November 6, “When Will the Slump End?”, in Newsweek:

(uncountable) Size and quality of residential accommodations; housing.


bath

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₁-
Proto-Germanic *baþą
Proto-West Germanic *baþ
Old English bæþ
Middle English bath
English bath
From Middle English bath, baþ, from Old English bæþ (“bath”), from Proto-West Germanic *baþ, from Proto-Germanic *baþą (“bath”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₁- (“to warm”). Corresponding inherited verbs are beath and bathe.

etymon

barf (non-rhotic, trap–bath split, th-fronting)

The master bath has two sinks.

(real estate, informal) Clipping of bathroom.


googolplex

Columbia University
Edward Kasner
Mathematics and the Imagination

From googol + -plex, coined by American mathematician Milton Sirotta in 1920 who was then the young nephew of mathematician Edward Kasner. First published and defined in the book Mathematics and the Imagination (1940).

coin

To a mathematician, a googolplex is the figure 1 followed by a googol of zeroes (a googol being the figure 1 followed by a mere 100 zeroes). To a real-estate man, it's one infinitesimal parcel of a plot of land.

1962, Newsweek: The International Newsmagazine, volume 60, New York, N.Y.: Newsweek LLC, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 54:

Competition among bidders eventually resulted in the discovery of the "Googolplex," a quantity supposedly as near to nothing as possible—one over one with countless zeros [as the size of the portion of land the bidder would accept as security for a tax lien]. This, however, was not the limit of minuteness. The "Googolplex of a Googolplex," or "Gee Gee" for short, became the common bid in the sale of City of Miami tax certificates. There has apparently been no authoritative determination of the effect of an outstanding Miami tax certificate […]

1976, Ralph E. Boyer, Florida Real Estate Transactions, New York, N.Y.: Matthew Bender & Co., →OCLC, pages 930–931:

(US, real estate, nonstandard, rare) An infinitesimally small portion of land, defined for legal purposes.


semi

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-semi.wav

The prefix semi- (from Latin) used as a noun.

2008, Elliott Placks, quoted in Helen Isbister, Morris Bryant, Property, Career FAQs, Australia, page 40,
I′m selling two side-by-side semis that are currently under construction, a waterfront apartment and a house in Rose Bay.

The smaller semis of the 1920s and 1930s were closely related to the three bedroom pre-1919 narrow fronted terraces, at least to the larger pre-1919 terraces.

2008, Barry Goodchild, Homes, Cities and Neighbourhoods: Planning and the Residential Landscapes of Modern Britain, page 52:

The roads were lined with cramped little semis and 1960s bungalows: Britain's cheapest houses, in their flimsy, pebble-dashed glory.

2012, Tim Moore, You Are Awful (But I Like You): Travels Around Unloved Britain, Vintage, →ISBN, page 150:

(UK, Ireland, Australia, Canada, informal) A semi-detached house.

I was hungry an' freezin' an' done caught a chill / When the lights of a big semi topped the hill

1967, Tommy Faile (lyrics and music), “Phantom 309”, performed by Red Sovine:

All night we couldn′t hear each other speak because of the sound of semis changing gear to get over the hill.

2011, Eamonn Duff, Schapelle Corby: The Untold Story Behind Her Ill-Fated Drug Run, Australia: Allen & Unwin, unnumbered page:

(Australia, Canada, New Zealand, US) A semi-trailer; a tractor-trailer; an eighteen-wheeler; an artic.


trailer

→ Armenian: թրեյլեր (tʻreyler)

→ Estonian: treiler

→ Finnish: traileri

→ Galician: tráiler

→ Greek: τρέιλερ (tréiler)

→ Japanese: トレーラー (torērā)

→ Portuguese: trailer

→ Romanian: treiler

→ Russian: тре́йлер (tréjler)

→ Spanish: tráiler

→ Swahili: trela

From trail + -er. The film sense derives from the fact that previews were formerly shown after the main feature, rather than before as is usual today.

תווית סוף

in computing: value used to signal the end of a list of data

We drove our trailer to Yellowstone Park.

(US) A furnished vehicle towed behind another, and used as a dwelling when stationary; a caravan; a camper.

The young couple′s first home was in a trailer.

(US) A prefabricated home that could be towed to a new destination but is typically permanently left in an area designated for such homes.

фургон

prefabricated home that could be towed but typically is not

The trailer for that movie makes it seem like it would be fun.

(chiefly US, media) A preview of a film, video game or TV show.

A short blank segment of film at the end of a reel, for convenient insertion of the film in a projector.

The linked list terminates with a trailer record.

(computing) The final record of a list of data items, often identified by a key field with an otherwise invalid value that sorts last alphabetically (e.g., “ZZZZZ”) or numerically (“99999”); especially common in the context of punched cards, where the final card is called a trailer card.


development

en-noun

development (countable and uncountable, plural developments)

From French développement, from Old French desvelopemens (“unrolling”). By surface analysis, develop + -ment. First attested in 1756.

(real estate, countable) A project consisting of one or more commercial or residential buildings.

(real estate, uncountable) The building of such a project.


rent

rent (countable and uncountable, plural rents)

From Middle English rent, rente, from Old French rente, from Early Medieval Latin rendita, from Late Latin rendere, from Latin reddere.

(video games) An amount of virtual currency paid by a player to preserve their character, inventory, etc. between gameplay sessions in a multi-user dungeon.


apartment

→ Japanese: アパートメント (apātomento), アパート (apāto)

→ Hokkien: a-phá-tò

→ Korean: 아파트 (apateu)

desc

→ Thai: อพาร์ทเมนท์ (à-páat-mén)

→ Thai: อพาร์ทเมนท์ (à-páat-mén)

From French appartement, from Italian appartamento, from Spanish apartamiento (“separation, seclusion”). See apart.

APT

The US Postal Service prefers this variant

apartment dwellers

I am Jonathan. I am in apartment B4. — I am in apartment C2.
Audio (US): (file)

2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

(chiefly Canada, US, Australia, Philippines) A complete domicile occupying only part of a building, especially one for rent; a flat.

雅柏文

ngaa⁵ paak³ man⁴, aa⁶ paat¹ man⁴, aa⁶ paat¹ man⁴⁻²

condominium

domicile occupying part of a building; compare with


duplex

PIE word
 *dwóh₁
Borrowed from Latin duplex (“double, two-fold”), from duo (“two”) + plico (“fold together”); compare the roots of διπλόος (diplóos, “double”); compare also πλέκω (plékō, “twist, braid”). By surface analysis, duo- + -plex.

The house had been renovated into a duplex and he’d put in a phone line.

2020, Akwaeke Emezi, The Death of Vivek Oji, Faber & Faber Ltd, page 53:

(US, Canada, Australia) A house made up of two dwelling units.

In contrast, the folds in the overlying lithotectonic unit 4 are larger and are cut by a series of faults in a duplex.

1993, David J. Lidke, Jack Burton Epstein, Chester A. Wallace, U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin, page 16:

It has been noted, using a combination of surface geologic and seismic reflection data, that a duplex, although formed in response to movement of a thrust sheet, frequently arches the thrust sheet as the duplex is built by duplication of rocks beneath it […]

1995, Robert D. Hatcher, Structural Geology: Principles, Concepts, and Problems, page 211:

(geology) A system of multiple thrust faults bounded above and below by a roof thrust and floor thrust.


duplex

en-verb

duplex (third-person singular simple present duplexes, present participle duplexing, simple past and past participle duplexed)

duplexes (present singular third-person)
duplexing (participle present)
duplexed (participle past)
duplexed (past)


folium

en-noun

folium (countable and uncountable, plural foliums or folia)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-folium.wav

From Latin folium (“leaf”). Doublet of foil and folio, distantly also with phyllo and phyllon.

There may nevertheless be a separate certificate and folium for any derived estate deed.

1872, Registration of Title (Australian Colonies), page 6464:

When this occurs, the existing declaration of title or conveyance is cancelled, the existing folium of the record closed, a fresh declaration of title issued to the new proprietor, and a new folium opened in the record book, upon which are carried forward the memorials of all lesser estates, interests, and charges affecting the land, and continuing current at the time of recording the change of ownership of the freehold.

1872, Edward Jenkins, Discussions on Colonial Questions, page 59:

The duplicate certificates are bound into a register and each forms a distinct folium of the register of one or more pages, for recording all dealings affecting the land, whether fee simple, lesser estate, mortgage, charge or interest, whether subsisting at the time the certificate is issued or subsequently created.

1899, Proceedings of the Eighteenth Annual Session of the Texas Bar Association, page 24:

Where land is the subject of frequent dealings, a stage is reached at which the folium of the land-register becomes incapable of holding futher endorsements.

1961, John Baalman, The Singapore Torrens Systems, page 65:

A document that acts as the legal record of a transaction.

(especially real estate) A certificate of title.


staircase

en-verb

staircase (third-person singular simple present staircases, present participle staircasing, simple past and past participle staircased)

staircases (present singular third-person)
staircasing (participle present)
staircased (participle past)
staircased (past)

It is a good idea to make plans for staircasing when you first buy your shared ownership home.

2018, Dave Cowan, Helen Carr, Alison Wallace, Ownership, Narrative, Things, Springer, →ISBN, page 139:

(real estate) To increase one's share in a co-ownership.


deed

From Middle English dede, from Old English dēd, dǣd (“deed, act”), from Proto-West Germanic *dādi, from Proto-Germanic *dēdiz (“deed”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰéh₁tis (“deed, action”). Analyzable through Proto-Germanic as do + -th. Doublet of thesis.
The real estate sense derives from the fact that property deeds are traditionally used to demonstrate proof of ownership of a legal title in common law jurisdictions, such as England & Wales and most of the United States.
Cognates:
Cognate with West Frisian died, Dutch daad (“deed, act”), German Low German Daad, German Tat (“deed, action”), Swedish, Norwegian and Danish dåd (“act, action”). The Proto-Indo-European root is also the source of Ancient Greek θέσις (thésis, “setting, arrangement”).

cog

I inherited the deed to the house.

(law) A legal instrument that is executed under seal or before a witness; sometimes required for certain legal activities, such as the transfer of certain kinds of property.

(by extension, real estate) The legal title to real estate; ownership.


deed

en-verb

deed (third-person singular simple present deeds, present participle deeding, simple past and past participle deeded)

deeds (present singular third-person)
deeding (participle present)
deeded (participle past)
deeded (past)

He deeded over the mineral rights to some fellas from Denver.

(real estate, informal) To transfer real property by deed.


lodge

→ Dutch: lodge

From Middle English logge, from Old French loge (“arbour, covered walk-way”), from Frankish *laubijā (“shelter; arbour”), from Proto-West Germanic *laub (“leaf; folliage”) (whence English leaf).
See also (compare cognate Medieval Latin lobia, laubia; also Old High German louba (“porch, gallery”) (German Laube (“bower, arbor”)), Old High German loub (“leaf, foliage”), Old English lēaf (“leaf, foliage”). Doublet of loggia and lobby.

cog

The tribe consists of about two hundred lodges, that is, of about a thousand individuals.

An indigenous American home, such as tipi or wigwam. By extension, the people who live in one such home; a household.

(historical) A family of Native Americans, or the persons who usually occupy an Indian lodge; as a unit of enumeration, reckoned from four to six persons.


situs

Borrowed from Latin situs (“position, site”). Doublet of site and sitio.

(real estate) The portion of an address comprising street number and street name, such as "3912 Park Drive".


compensation

en-noun

compensation (countable and uncountable, plural compensations)

From Middle English compensacioun, from Old French compensacion, from Latin compensātiōnem, accusative singular of compensātiō.

(real estate) An equivalent stipulated for in contracts for the sale of real estate, in which it is customary to provide that errors in description, etc., shall not avoid, but shall be the subject of compensation.


cottage

→ French: cottage

Late Middle English, from Anglo-Norman cotage and Medieval Latin cotagium, from Old Northern French cot, cote (“hut, cottage”) + -age (“surrounding property”), from Proto-Germanic *kutan, *kuta- (“shed”), probably of non-Indo-European origin, possibly borrowed from Uralic; compare Finnish kota (“hut, house”) and Hungarian ház (“house”), both from Proto-Finno-Ugric/Proto-Uralic *kota. However, also compare Dutch and English hut.
Old Northern French cote is probably from Old Norse kot (“hut”), cognate of Old English cot of same Proto-Germanic origin.
Slang sense “public toilet” from 19th century, due to resemblance.

Most cottages in the area were larger and more elaborate than my home.

Thinks I to myself, “Sol, you're run off your course again. This is a rich man's summer ‘cottage’ and if you don't look out there's likely to be some nice, lively dog taking an interest in your underpinning.”

1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

A seasonal home of any size or stature, a recreational home or a home in a remote location.

(Polari) A meeting place for homosexual men.


underlet

en-verb

underlet (third-person singular simple present underlets, present participle underletting, simple past and past participle underlet)

underlets (present singular third-person)
underletting (participle present)
underlet (participle past)
underlet (past)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-underlet.wav


shack

Unknown. Some authorities derive this word from Mexican Spanish jacal, from Nahuatl xacalli (“adobe hut”).
Alternatively, the word may instead come from ramshackle/ramshackly (e.g., old ramshackly house) or perhaps it may be a back-formation from shackly.

The men resided in a huge bunk house, which consisted of one room only, with a shack outside where the cooking was done. In the large room were a dozen bunks ; half of them in a very dishevelled state, […]

1913, Robert Barr, chapter 6, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad:


shack

en-noun

shack (countable and uncountable, plural shacks)

Obsolete variant of shake. Compare Scots shag (“refuse of barley or oats”).

(obsolete) Nuts which have fallen to the ground.

(fishing) Bait that can be picked up at sea.


shack

en-adj

shack (comparative more shack, superlative most shack)

more shack (comparative)
most shack (superlative)

From shagged or shagged out, originally British colloquialisms.

I suppose they could not really blame us for feeling so shack after doing PT, drill and other boring lessons in the morning.

1994, C. S. Chong, NS: An Air-Level Story, →ISBN, page 33:

(Singapore, slang) Exhausted, worn out, extremely tired.


mansion

→ Japanese: マンション (manshon)

From Middle English mansioun, borrowed from Anglo-Norman mansion, mansiun, from Latin mānsiō (“dwelling, stopping-place”), from the past participle stem of manēre (“stay”).

der

In my Father's house are many mansions [translating μοναὶ (monaì)]: if it were not so, I would have told you.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, John XIV:2:

These poets near our princes sleep, / And in one grave their mansion keep.

1667, John Denham, On Mr Abraham Cowley, his Death, and Burial amongst the Ancient Poets:

The many mansions in one east London house of God.

2003, The Economist, (subtitle), 18 Dec 2003

(chiefly in the plural) An individual habitation or apartment within a large house or group of buildings. (Now chiefly in allusion to John 14:2.)


hovel

From Middle English hovel, hovil, hovylle, diminutive of *hove, *hof (“structure, building, house”), from Old English hof (“an enclosure, court, dwelling, house”), from Proto-Germanic *hufą (“hill, farm”), from Proto-Indo-European *kewp- (“arch, bend, buckle”), equivalent to howf + -el. Compare Middle High German hobel (“cover, lid, covered wagon”). Cognate with Dutch hof (“garden, court”), German Hof (“yard, garden, court, palace”), Icelandic hof (“temple, hall”). Related to hove and hover.

cog

'Behold! once more I kiss thee, and by that kiss I give to thee dominion over sea and earth, over the peasant in his hovel, over the monarch in his palace halls, and cities crowned with towers, and those who breathe therein.'

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

The hovel stood in the centre of what had once been a vegetable garden, but was now a patch of rank weeds. Surrounding this, almost like a zareba, was an irregular ring of gorse and brambles, an unclaimed vestige of the original common.

1944, Miles Burton, chapter 5, in The Three Corpse Trick:

I have to say it again, my Dearest Friend. What a wonderful Comedown for the Godhead! What a wonderful Comeuppance for Humankind! That’s because You, Lord God, Creator, Bellows Maker of All That Breathes, deigned to come to my hovel of a soul; once there, to fatten up the leanness of my soul with the plumpitude of Your Sacrament; that’s to say, with the plenitude of Your Divinity and Humanity.

2000, Thomas à Kempis, “[The Sacrament of the Altar: How to Prepare for It & What It Tastes Like] Frequency”, in William Griffin, transl., The Imitation of Christ: How Jesus Wants Us to Live […] A Contemporary Version, HarperSanFrancisco, →ISBN, page 238:

(derogatory) A poor cottage; a small, mean house; a hut.


pension

From French pension, from Old French pencion, as etymology 1 above. Doublet of pensione.

A pension had somewhat less to offer than a hotel; it was always smaller, and never elegant; it sometimes offered breakfast, and sometimes not

1978, John Irving, The World According to Garp:

A boarding house or small hotel, especially in continental Europe, which typically offers lodging and certain meals and services.


shelter

From Middle English sheltron, sheldtrume (“roof or wall formed by locked shields”), from Old English sċildtruma, sċyldtruma (“a phalanx, company (of troops), a tortoise, a covering, shed, shelter”, literally “shield-troop”), from sċyld, sċield (“shield”) + truma (“a troop of soldiers”). Cognate with Scots schilthrum, schiltrum. More at shield, and Old English trymman (“to strengthen”), from trum (“strong, firm”) at trim.

An institution that provides temporary housing for homeless people, battered women, etc.


dormitory

From Middle English dormitory, dormytory, dormytorye, borrowed from Latin dormītōrium (“a sleeping-room”), from dormiō (“to sleep”). Doublet of dorter.

She will be much more likely to meet his wishes after a residence at the castle, than an imprisonment on short commons in her dormitory in Welbeck Street; for in one case she only learnt how much she could endure, in the other she will find how much she can enjoy.

1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], “(please specify the page)”, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, pages 150–151:

A room containing a number of beds (and often some other furniture and/or utilities) for sleeping, often applied to student and backpacker accommodation of this kind.

dorm

room for sleeping, or a building with such rooms

A building or part of a building which houses students, soldiers, monks etc. who sleep there and use communal further facilities.


homeless shelter

en-noun

homeless shelter (plural homeless shelters)

A building set up to provide for the needs of homeless people; often including shelter, food, sanitation and other forms of support.

asunnottomien asuntola

building to provide shelter for homeless — see also night shelter

A sanctuary for the temporary housing of domesticated animals without a home.


front foot

Land is frequently sold by the front foot or by the square foot of land area.

2002, Ralph Tamper, Mastering Real Estate Mathematics, page 109:

Figures represent value of corners, for lot of average width and depth, in dollars per front foot.

2021, Richard M. Hurd, Principles of City Land Values:

(real estate) The width, in feet, of the front of a property.


gunyah

Borrowed from Dharug gunya (“shelter”), first recorded 1803.

The following day we reached the main creek ; and knowing where there was a fine water-hole and native gunyahs, we went there, intending to save what was left of our flour and dried meat, for the purpose of making another attempt to reach Mount Hopeless.

1861, Robert O'Hara Burke, William John Wills, The Burke and Wills Exploring Expedition: An Account of the Crossing the Continent of Australia from Coopers Creek to Carpentaria, page 4:

Still standing as he was, some seconds later he chuckled again to see her pass like a flash from the jungle to the gunyah. But in spite of chuckling he was afraid to advance; indeed he even avoided staring at the gunyah; and though the desire to play the faun to this nymph was in his heart, thought of flight was uppermost in his mind.

1938, Xavier Herbert, Capricornia, unnumbered page:

We lived in humpies, or gunyahs, that the men built from tree branches, bark and leaves. Gum resin held them together. We would sleep inside the gunyahs, us children arguing for the warm place closest to Mama, a place usually kept for the youngest children.

1994, Rita Huggins, Jackie Huggins, Auntie Rita, page 8:

(Australia) A traditional Aboriginal dwelling made of bark and sticks.


condominium

condominium (plural condominiums or condominia)

condominiums (plural)
condominia (plural)

condominium
condominium (international law)

gemeenschappelijk bestuurd gebied of eigendom

համատիրության մեջ ընդգրկված շենք

building in which each unit is owned by an individual, but the grounds is owned jointly

building waarbij iedere flat individuele eigendom is maar de gronden gemeenschappelijk

(US, Canada, Philippines) A building or complex of buildings that provides multiple residential units each of which is owned separately but whose grounds, structure, etc. (if any) are owned jointly.

(US, Canada, Philippines) The system of ownership by which such condominiums operate.

համատիրություն

the system of ownership by which such condominiums operate

(US, Canada, Philippines) An individual unit (such as an apartment) in such a complex.


housing

housing (countable and uncountable, plural housings)

From Middle English housynge, housinge, from housen (“to house, shelter; receive into one's house”), equivalent to house + -ing. Cognate with Scots housing (“housing”); compare Dutch huizing, behuizing (“housing”), Low German husing, hüsing (“housing”), German Behausung (“housing”).

She lives in low-income housing.


hooch

Borrowed from Japanese 家(うち) (uchi, “house”).

Burn the hooches.

2022 December 6, Avatar: The Way of Water, spoken by Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang):

(Vietnam War-era military slang) A thatched hut, CHU, or any simple dwelling.


MLS

MLS (countable and uncountable, plural MLSs)

multiple listing service
w:multiple listing service

(US, real estate) Initialism of multiple listing service.


GFE

GFE (countable and uncountable, plural GFEs)

(Google): Introduced by sex columnist Dan Savage.

As usual, that broker's GFE was off by more than 30% from the final cost.

(real estate) Initialism of good-faith estimate.


orphanage

orphanage (countable and uncountable, plural orphanages)

/ˈɔː(ɹ)fənɪd͡ʒ/

Attested since the 1570s; orphan + -age.

A residential institution for the care and protection of orphans.

jetimore

a residential institution for the care and protection of orphans

(obsolete) Orphanhood; the state of being an orphan.


fee simple

Sir, for a Cardceue he will ſell the fee-ſimple of his ſaluation, the inheritance of it, and cut th’ intaile from all remainders, and a perpetuall ſucceſsion for it perpetually.

c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii], page 248, column 2:

It had never occurred to me that a parson has no fee-simple in the house and glebe he occupies.

1787, William Cowper, letter, 19 October

(law) The private ownership of property (real estate) in which the owner has the right to control, use, and transfer the property at will.

永久產權

The rights and privileges of private ownership of property particularly real estate

fee simple subject to condition subsequent

fee simple subject to executory interest

fee simple subject to executory limitation


leasehold

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-leasehold.wav

term of years absolute
term of years absolute

(property law) Of an estate in land, held for a term of years absolute by a lessee or tenant.


freehold

freehold (countable and uncountable, plural freeholds)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-freehold.wav

(property law) Real property held by a tenure of this type.


dwelling

From Middle English dwellynge, dwellyng (“delay, continuance, abode”). More at dwell.

The old house served as a dwelling for Albert.

For Philip's dwelling fronted on the street, / The latest house to landward; but behind, / With one small gate that open'd on the waste, / Flourish'd a little garden square and wall'd; [...]

1864, Alfred Tennyson, “Enoch Arden”, in Enoch Arden, &c., London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 40:

He turned back to the scene before him and the enormous new block of council dwellings. The design was some way after Corbusier but the block was built up on plinths and resembled an Atlantic liner swimming diagonally across the site.

1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword: The Turk Street Mile”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 9:

A house or place in which a person lives; a habitation, a home.


residential

en-adj

residential (comparative more residential, superlative most residential)

more residential (comparative)
most residential (superlative)

/ˌrɛzɪˈdɛnʃəl/

There is a residential requirement for obtaining a marriage license here.


doghouse

"But, honey, whar yo' ole man gwine ter sleep?" "Dey's straw in de barn, en pine shatters in de doghouse!" she shouted, slamming the window.

1902, Thomas Dixon, The Leopard's Spots: A Romance of the White Man's Burden--1865-1900, page 61:

Any small house or structure or enclosure used to house a dog.

This berth of mine was commonly called a doghouse (a box about six feet long, four high, and two broad,) containing a mattress fitted about 18 inches from the deck.

1840, James Holman, Travels in Madeira, Sierra Leone, Teneriffe, St. Jago, Cape Coast, Fernando ..., page 411:

p. 1927, United States Code Annotated
[…] so as to render railroad liable for death of brakeman falling from tender, notwithstanding construction of doghouse on top of tender for brakeman's use.

The yacht is well equipped and has accommodations for six people. A teak doghouse over the forward part of the cockpit affords […]

A rotary rig could have drilled that much in a day. Oscar had been here a month. He kept a careful log on the doghouse wall […]

2005, Alan Cockrell, Drilling Ahead: The Quest for Oil in the Deep South, 1945-2005, page 276:

A structure of small size, similar to a doghouse, but offering useful shelter for a human.

A traffic signal with five sections: two on the bottom, two in the middle, and one on top.

He didn't even know where he was taking her. He had assumed she would suggest a place she wanted to eat, the movie she wanted to see. Now he suspected she was waiting for him to make the decision. Unfortunately, he hardly knew the area. He didn't want to risk taking her to the local doghouse.

2011, Christopher Pike, Until the End: The Party; The Dance; The Graduation, page 161:

(informal) Any shabby or disreputable establishment.


earthhouse

A dwelling that has been built to blend in with the surrounding landscape, being mostly underground with a grassy contoured roof; it may also be completely underground, or have a topping of intensive growth.


Palace of Westminster

An extensive building on the north bank of the River Thames in London, housing the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

Paleis van Westminster

building in London housing the House of Commons and House of Lords


maisonette

Borrowed from French maisonnette. Doublet of mansionette.


bower

From Middle English bour, from Old English būr, from Proto-West Germanic *būr, from Proto-Germanic *būrą (“room, abode”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Búur (“storage room, utility room; cage”), German Bauer (“birdcage”), Old Norse búr (“cage”) (Danish bur, Norwegian Bokmål bur, Swedish bur).

cog

While friends arrived in circles gay,
To visit Damon's bower

1748, William Shenstone, to William Lyttleton Esq.:

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: / Its loveliness increases; it will never / Pass into nothingness; but still will keep / A bower quiet for us, and a sleep / Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.

1818, John Keats, “Book I”, in Endymion: A Poetic Romance, London: […] T[homas] Miller, […] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, page 3, lines 1–5:

(literary) A dwelling; a picturesque country cottage, especially one that is used as a retreat.


residency

en-noun

residency (countable and uncountable, plural residencies)

The home or residence of a person, especially in the colonies.

bosæde

(US, healthcare) The position or term of a medical resident.

The trance DJ was keen to secure a residency in Ibiza.

After a successful Thursday-night residency at the Marquee Club—where the Yardbirds, the Animals, and the Rolling Stones first earned their reputations—England's CBS label signed the group to a recording contract.

1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, →ISBN, page 254:

The position of a musical artist who commonly performs at a particular venue.


amortize

en-verb

amortize (third-person singular simple present amortizes, present participle amortizing, simple past and past participle amortized)

amortizes (present singular third-person)
amortizing (participle present)
amortized (participle past)
amortized (past)

From Middle English amortisen, from Old French amortir (via the stem amortiss-), from Vulgar Latin *admortīre, derived from Latin mortuus (“dead”).

(real estate, property law, transitive) To alienate (property) in mortmain.


CAM

(real estate) Initialism of common area maintenance.


AST

en-noun

AST (countable and uncountable, plural ASTs)

assured shorthold tenancy
w:assured shorthold tenancy

(property law, real estate, England and Wales) Initialism of assured shorthold tenancy.


warranty

warranty (countable and uncountable, plural warranties)

From Middle English warantye, warantie, from Anglo-Norman warrantie, an Old Northern French variant of Old French guarantie (Modern French garantie). Doublet of guarantee and guaranty. More at warrant.

covenant of warranty
covenant of warranty

(countable, law, real estate, obsolete) A legal agreement that was a real covenant and ran with the land: The grantor of a piece of real estate held in freehold, and his heirs, were required to officially guarantee their claim and plead their case for the title. If evicted by someone with a superior claim (paramount title), they were also required to hand over other real estate of equal value in recompense. It has now been replaced by personal covenants and the covenant of warranty.

(law, countable, real estate) A covenant, also called the covenant of warranty, whereby the grantor assures the grantee that he or she will not be subject to the claims of someone with a paramount title, thereby guaranteeing the status of the title that is being conveyed.


flophouse

From flop + house, originally hobo slang, presumably from slang flop (“lie down to sleep”).

In one of [Cincinnati’s] slum districts stands the Silver Moon, a “flop house” (i.e., a house where the occupants are “flopped” out of their hanging bunks by letting down the ropes).

We even visited some drunken seamen in a flophouse on Mission Street that she knew; they offered us whisky.

1957, Jack Kerouac, On the Road, Viking Press, →OCLC:

He was born out back of a twopenny flophouse in what the wags called “The Holy Land” […].

1982, TC Boyle, Water Music, Penguin, published 2006, page 34:

(US, slang) A cheap hotel or boarding house where many people sleep in large rooms.


terrace

Borrowed from French terrasse, from Old Occitan terrassa, from terra (“land”). Doublet of terrasse.

A row of residential houses with no gaps between them; a group of row houses.

Häuserflucht

both not restricted to residential houses


condo

(US, Canada, Philippines) Clipping of condominium.


detached house

A free-standing, single-family dwelling unit that does not share a common wall with any other structure.


puri

From Balinese ᬧᬸᬭᬷ (puri), from Old Javanese purī (“palace, royal residence”), from Sanskrit पुरी (purī), पुर् (pur, “stronghold, fortress”), from ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(t)pĺ̥H (“city, fortress, stronghold”). Compare to English polis (“a Greek city-state”).

der

In Bali and other parts of Indonesia, a palace, or other residence of a member of the royal family or ruling class.


sublet

(property law, real estate, informal) Synonym of sublease.


time-sharing

(business, real estate) The joint ownership or lease of a property by multiple people who can only use it for specified periods every year, or every other year.


time-share

(business, real estate) A property jointly owned or leased by multiple people who are allowed to use (or sublet) it only during specified periods each year.


title deed

(law) A deed or similar document by which the title to property is conveyed between parties.

нотариален акт

deed by which the title to property is conveyed


abstract of title

en-noun

abstract of title (countable and uncountable, plural abstracts of title)

(law, real estate) An epitome of the evidences of ownership; the condensed history of title to a particular parcel of real estate, with encumbrances.


Balmoral

Castle name first appears in writing as Bouchmorale in 1451. Formed from a combination of Old Irish both (“hut, bothy, cot; cabin”) and an uncertain second element. The second element may be Pictish, equivalent to Welsh mawr (“large”) + Welsh iâl (“pastureland”).

der

As we climbed the Marykirk Bank Ogilvie spoke of the passes leading over to Deeside, and of the Royal deer forests around Balmoral; then, with mingled pride and modesty, he added, "I've driven the King seven times."

1947 January and February, O. S. Nock, “"The Aberdonian" in Wartime”, in Railway Magazine, page 8:

A castle and associated estate in Aberdeenshire council area, Scotland, that is a private residence of the British sovereign (OS grid ref NO2595).

Scottish Borders
Scottish Borders#English

A suburb of Galashiels, Scottish Borders council area, Scotland (OS grid ref NT4836).


houseboat

A vessel, such as a barge, used as a dwelling.


projects

/ˈpɹɑˌd͡ʒɛkts/

My friend Larry Gray never gangbanged with us but was from the projects and to your rival, that meant you were one

2008, Donovan Simmons, Terry Moses, Bloods and Crips: The Genesis of a Genocide, page 128:

(US, usually preceded by the) One or more high-density urban housing developments for residents having low incomes.


landlocked

From land + locked (i.e. "locked-in by land on all sides").

An easement of necessity, said the court, may be provided when property is landlocked and the owner needs access to that property from a public highway.

2005, Washington Legislative Reference Bureau, State of Wisconsin Blue Book, 2005-2006, page 610:

In some states, the law allows for easements by necessity, especially in circumstances where a property is landlocked.

2005, Thomas J. McEvoy, Owning and Managing Forests: A Guide to Legal, Financial, and Practical Matters, page 49:

For example, if a property is landlocked (entirely surrounded by other privately owned land) and has no access to a public street...

2006, Real Estate Principles, Rockwell publishing, page 114:

(US, real estate, of a property or parcel) Surrounded by other property and having no access to a public road.


guesthouse

Japanese: ゲストハウス (gesutohausu)

Korean: 게스트하우스 (geseuteuhauseu)

From Middle English gest hous, gistenehus, gystehuse, gesthus, partly from Old English gæsthūs, ġesthūs (“guesthouse, hostel; guest-chamber”), from Proto-West Germanic *gastihūs; and partly from Old Norse gesthús (“guesthouse; guest-chamber”); both from Proto-Germanic *gastihūsą, corresponding to guest + house.

Low-season competition between the several backpackers and many guesthouses in town keeps prices down, but in high season expect steep price hikes (except at the backpackers) and book ahead.

2004, Mary Fitzpatrick et al., South Africa, Lesotho, and Swaziland, Lonely Planet, →ISBN, page 199:

For me, in any case, Ladakh seemed a beautifully unfallen place next to the blue-glass shopping malls of modern Lhasa, the global village of pizza joints and guesthouses that is urban Nepal, or long-isolated Bhutan with its chic new hotels.

2009 March 13, Pico Iyer, “Heaven’s Gate”, in The New York Times:

And Ms. Davies’s 7,000-square-foot guesthouse, the only building from the original estate to survive, is already a favorite among card-playing foursomes and others who want to lounge on the second-story deck and watch dolphins bob in the whitecapped waves.

2009 August 30, Laura M. Holson, “A Dip Into Hollywood”, in The New York Times:

A private house offering accommodation to paying guests; a boarding house; a bed and breakfast.


frame house

A house constructed on a light wooden framework.


Versailles

Borrowed from French Versailles, of uncertain Latin origin (see French entry below), possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wértti (“to be turning around”).


Versailles

A town and county seat of Ripley County, Indiana, United States.

A home-rule class city and county seat of Woodford County, Kentucky, United States.

A city, the county seat of Morgan County, Missouri, United States.


Versailles

Named by Vietnamese American residents in the 1970s after the Versailles Arms apartment complex in which they first settled.

A neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana, United States.


row house

The walls in Eduardo's row house were so thin he could hear the neighbors two houses down.

When we meet Jess in the early '50s she's seven, living in a row house crammed against other row houses in a working-class Lancaster, all packed in against the steep hills that populate the English Northwest.

1990 August 18, Liz Galst, “The Boston Lesbian and Gay Film Festival Continues”, in Gay Community News, volume 18, number 6, page 9:

(chiefly US) A variety of residential building where the individual houses lining a street share adjacent walls in common and have a continuous stretch of roof


appartement

I am a French student of litterature who would like to visit London during the month of August. Maybe you would like to visit Paris in this period. I propose you to exchange my appartement with yours. I live in the near suburb of Paris (5 minutes from the center by the tube). My appartement is modest, but with all acommodities: to live, to sleep, to cook, to wash, to read, to dream,...

1996 June 11, Ammadj Sedik, “exchange of flat Paris-London (échange d'appartement)”, in soc.culture.british (Usenet), retrieved 2022-05-01:

The strange woman went right up to my appartement (I live in the highest) and stood right in front of my door. And she was just standing there, staring. Of course, I didn't notice that, so my girlfriend rang me using the intercom and said that a strange women was standing at my door.

1998 September 20, DJB, “Man at my bed”, in alt.folklore.ghost-stories (Usenet), retrieved 2022-05-01:

I leave my appartement in Paris, durin chrismas, and i would like to rent it for 1 week.
Situated near the "Père Lachaise cemetary" and near bus and metro.
3 rooms, it means 2 bedrooms.
Well furnished
With a quite big garden.
Nice residence, very green.
Do not hesitate to let me a proposition.
Thanks

1999 November 3, bou...@nomade.fr, “For Rent Appartement for Chrismas in Paris”, in japan.travel.abroad (Usenet), retrieved 2022-05-01:

Now you all can enjoy your time in cairo , without incurring very expensive hotel charge . I offer you to spend your lovely time in cairo as my guest , it`s charge is 10 $ for single room 15 $ for double room . I live in nasr city , my appartement is 120 m ..

2000 June 29, egy...@internetegypt.com, “appartement in Cairo”, in alt.culture.egyptian (Usenet), retrieved 2022-05-01:

(non-native speakers' English) Misspelling of apartment.


country house

One of those utterly tedious amusements one only finds at an English country house on an English country Sunday. I don't think any one at all morally responsible for what he or she does at an English country house.

1909, Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband, act 3:

(British) A weekend and holiday residence, located outside of urban areas, used as a retreat from city life.


Louvre

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-Louvre.wav

Borrowed from French Louvre. More at Louvre Palace.

God above, this man was as chiseled as the statues she'd spied in the Louvre.

2011, Tara Kingston, Claimed by the Spymaster, page 68:

I don't care if your split, power or squat position looks like it should be in the Louvre, you won't jerk a thing.

2010, Don McCauley, Power Trip: A Guide to Weightlifting for Coaches, Athletes and Parents, page 130:

I preferred the Dutch apple pie, and my waitress for those few years had legs that belonged in the Louvre.

2006, Ted Nelson Lundrigan, Bob White, A Bird in the Hand, page 85:

IF YOU ARE a young Joe DiMaggio or Mickey Mantle with a swing that belongs in the Louvre, somebody might get the idea you could win a batting title, even if it was only your second year with the New York Yankees.

1985 February, Phil Elderkin, “Don Mattingly: A.L. Batting Champion, A Born Hitter”, in Baseball Digest, volume 44, number 2, page 49:

For purposes of illustrating a lecture on calisthenics, a stick figure is a better picture of a squatting man than something from the Louvre.

1960, Thomas Felix Staton, How to Instruct Successfully: Modern Teaching Methods in Adult Education, page 172:

They are cries which show that every one has his own place, and should stay in it, — M. de Guise in the streets, and you in the Louvre. Go to the Louvre, Sire; go to the Louvre.

1889, Alexandre Dumas, Dame de Monsoreau: Volume 1, page 319:

A famous art museum and former royal palace in Paris, France.


mia mia

Borrowed from Kurnai mai-mai or Wathaurong [Term?].

1913, William Henry Fitchett, The New World of the South: Australia in the Making, 2006 Elibron Classics, page 391,
On the point of this “spear” they erected what looked like a mia-mia, a hut made of branches by the blacks ; across the road opposite to it the trunk of a tree was dragged, leaving a narrow track along which the escort must defile.

Decorated with this mop of hair and the chaplet, the girl was led by her father to the mia-mia and put inside this with the four boys.

1914, Baldwin Spencer, Native Tribes of the Northern Territory of Australia, Cambridge University Press, published 2010, page 109:

Exhausted, he threw himself down at the door of the mia-mia of the emu and lay there as if dead.

1932, W. Ramsay Smith, “The Flood and its Results”, in Myths and Legends of the Australian Aborigines, Dover, published 2003, page 160:

"Dan is creeping through the bushes on the other side of the mia-mia."

1944, H. Lorna Bingham, Tuckonie's Warrior Friend, page 15, column 2:

(Australia) An aboriginal shelter made from bark, a gunya.


humpy

From Yagara (Brisbane region) ŋumbi, perhaps influenced by hump.

They did nothing much more in the way of building than to erect a number of crazy humpies of such materials as bark and kerosene-cans […]

1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter III, in Capricornia, page 29:

Evicted men and their families lived wherever they could, and shanty towns of hessian-sack humpies grew up in Sydney′s southern suburbs on vacant crown land: the largest being at Brighton-le-Sands, Rockdale, Long Bay and La Perouse. In such camps, unemployed huddled for warmth in humpies while, closer to the city, others squatted in caves in the Domain around the local beauty spot known as Mrs Macquarie′s chair.

2003, Frank G. Clarke, Australia in a Nutshell: A Narrative History, page 215:

(Australia) Any crude or temporary dwelling, especially made from found materials; a bush hut.


subdivide

en-verb

subdivide (third-person singular simple present subdivides, present participle subdividing, simple past and past participle subdivided)

subdivides (present singular third-person)
subdividing (participle present)
subdivided (participle past)
subdivided (past)

This used to be farmland before developers bought it and subdivided it.

Several local families recorded plots of land as additions to the town's territory and subdivided them into house lots.

1993, Historic American Building Survey, Town of Clayburg: Refractories Company Town, National Park Service, 3

(transitive, intransitive) To divide into smaller sections.

(real estate) To divide a plot of land into plots for residences; to convert open land into housing.


trailer park

(US, Canada) An area containing mobile homes for rent or places to station them if owned; normally providing utilities and services


caravan park

recreational vehicle
recreational vehicle

An area where caravans and recreational vehicles may be parked for a short period.


rancher

By the 1960s in North America sprawling ranchers and backsplits with attached garages had become common […]

1987, E. C. Relph, The Modern Urban Landscape: 1880 to the Present, page 174:

We know that if a realtor got a listing for a rancher in the neighborhood of property one: that similar houses there will sell, with some effort, for about $59,000.

2009, Thomas Collins, How to Invest in Real Estate, page 21:

(US, real estate) A ranch-style house, a ranchhouse.


Osborne

From a medieval given name influenced by, or possibly derived from, Old Norse Ásbjǫrn, from áss (“god”) + bjǫrn (“bear”). See English bear.

A small city, the county seat of Osborne County, Kansas, United States.

Pipestone County
Pipestone County#English

A township in Pipestone County, Minnesota, United States.

A rural community in St. Clair township, Lambton County, Ontario, Canada.

A former royal palace, now a tourist attraction, on the north coast of the Isle of Wight, England.


Buckingham Palace

The official London residence of the British monarch.

Buckingham-paleis

the official London residence of the British monarch


social housing

(UK) Rental housing owned and managed by the government, non-profit organizations, or by a combination of the two, with the aim of providing affordable housing, often focusing on disadvantaged groups such as low-income earners, social-security recipients, the elderly and people with disabilities.

公共房屋

affordable housing provided by public authorities or non-profit organizations

(állami) bérlakás / bérház / lakástámogatás


apartment building

en-noun

apartment building (plural apartment buildings)

A residential building containing multiple apartments or flats.

жили́щен блок

residential building with multiple flats


gazump

en-verb

gazump (third-person singular simple present gazumps, present participle gazumping, simple past and past participle gazumped)

gazumps (present singular third-person)
gazumping (participle present)
gazumped (participle past)
gazumped (past)

Possibly from Yiddish גזלן (gazlen, “thief, bandit”).

If one believes that morality plays no part in such a transaction, and that the law is all that prevails, then I believe society is the poorer. Clearly no surveyor refuses to act for a client who gazumps — but while the practice is legal it can hardly be described as moral, and the position of the surveyor is far from clear.

1980, The Estates Gazette, volume 256, part 2, page 902:

During the early 1970s however in a period of rapidly increasing house prices it came to appear unfavourable to buyers since it allowed the seller to ‘gazump’, that is to refuse to sign the formal contract unless the buyer would agree to an increased price.

1981, Geoffrey Chevalier Cheshire, M. P. Furmston, Cecil Herbert Stuart Fifoot, Cheshire and Fifoot's Law Of Contract, page 35:

(British, Australia, real estate) To raise the selling price of something (especially property) after previously agreeing to a lower one.

I can disclose that Mrs Blair had an offer of £2,765,000 accepted on a five-storey Georgian house in a fashionable area of central London, which she planned to give to daughter Kathryn.¶ However, actress Talulah Riley, 31, who played spoiled Annabelle Fritton in two St Trinian’s films, gazumped her with an offer of £3 million — a staggering £235,000 more than the asking price.

2017 March 15, Sebastian Shakespeare, “Cherie Blair is gazumped on £3m house by Elon Musk's ex-wife”, in The Daily Mail:

We are first-time buyers going through the process of buying our first home in London. We had previously tried three years ago and were gazumped twice. We lost nearly £4,000 to surveyors and solicitors with no property to show for it at the end.

2017 October 22, Nana Prempeh, quoting Nick Smith, “Gazumping: Your views”, in BBC News:

Birmingham's teen sensation Jude Bellingham is nearing a move to Borussia Dortmund, according to reports in Germany.¶ Manchester United and Chelsea have been strongly linked with the 16-year-old but are set to be gazumped by the Bundesliga giants.

2020 March 4, Marc Mayo, “Dortmund leading race for Jude Bellingham, 16, ahead of Man Utd with Birmingham wonderkid to be their record transfer”, in The Sun:

(British, Australia, real estate) To buy a property by bidding more than the price of an existing, accepted offer.


gazump

(British, Australia, real estate) The act of gazumping.


rooming house

A house which lets out rooms and may also supply board for an added price: synonym of boarding house.


bedsit

(British, Ireland) A form of rented accommodation consisting of a single room for use as both sitting room and bedroom; there may also be a small kitchen area and washing and toilet facilities, but these amenities are more commonly outside the room and shared by several tenants.


rowhouse

(especially US) One of a row of houses situated side by side and sharing a common wall.


appraisal cost

(real estate, usually in the plural) The costs that are incurred in assessing that products/services conform to the requirements. It relates to testing, executing, and examination to assess whether specified quality is being maintained. Some example component items of the total appraisal costs are: product quality audits, process control monitoring, inspection and testing of goods, and maintenance of test equipment.


boarding house

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Back ache-boarding house.wav

A boarding school building where boarders live during term time.


shirtfront

It is explained that a "shirt front" building is one of which only the street elevation is given a finished architectural treatment, the sides and back being of cheaper material, with no attempt at unification with the front.

1927, The Bricklayer, Mason and Plasterer, volumes 30-32, page 100:

False fronts, frequently called "shirt fronts," are futile attempts to make a small, cheap house pass for something larger and more valuable.

1967, The Appraisal of Real Estate, page 132:

(real estate, slang) An attractive facade applied only to the front of a house.


RFQS

(real estate) reduced for quick sale: Used when advertising houses at a lower than expected price to indicate that the vendor wants to sell the house quickly.


fleabag

While Mike was still in the hospital, a man named Olin—the manager of the goddamned hotel, if you please—came and asked Sam Farrell if he could listen to that tape. Farrell said no, he couldn't; what Olin could do was take himself on out of the agent's office at a rapid hike and thank God all the way back to the fleabag where he worked that Mike Enslin had decided not to sue either the hotel or Olin for negligence.

1999, Stephen King, “1408”, in Everything's Eventual, published 2002:

(slang) A place of shabby lodging, particularly a filthy hotel or run-down apartment.


overbuilt

en-adj

overbuilt (comparative more overbuilt, superlative most overbuilt)

more overbuilt (comparative)
most overbuilt (superlative)

in the overbuilt exurbs of the megalopolis

Having had excessive construction (building) carried out, as:


resi

(real estate, property law) Clipping of residential.


resi

(real estate, property law) Clipping of residential real estate.


doss-house

W. Besant
They [street Arabs] consort together and sleep in low doss houses where they meet with all kinds of villainy.

A place where homeless people can sleep for the night.


subletting

[…] there are sublettings, overcrowdings of lands, clearances, and emigrations going on; and want of employment, with consequent destitution and wretchedness is the complaint of the majority of the inhabitants.

1846, Thomas Campbell Foster, Letters on the Condition of the People of Ireland, page 270:

(property law, real estate) Synonym of sublease.


short sale

(real estate) A property sale negotiated with a mortgage company in which a lender takes less than the total amount due.


Rachmanism

From Rachman + -ism, from Peter Rachman, accused of being an unscrupulous British landlord.

(British) The exploitation of tenants of slum properties by unscrupulous landlords

(UK) The exploitation of tenants of slum properties by unscrupulous landlords

intimidation de locataires par des propriétaires sans scrupules


fizbo

From pronunciation of FSBO (“for sale by owner”).

(real estate) A property being sold by the owner, without the aid of a broker.


fisbo

From pronunciation of FSBO (“For Sale by Owner”).


FSBO

That's a bad neighborhood for brokers: too many FSBOs.

(real estate) Acronym of for sale by owner, referring to the property.


tax lot

(accounting, real estate, US) An parcel of real property on which property taxes are levied.


TICAM

(real estate) Acronym of taxes, insurance, and common area maintenance.


frat house

She wrote some awfully slushy letters to Phil Bowen, and he read them aloud at the frat house one night.

1922, Willa Cather, chapter 9, in One of Ours:

(US) A building in which the members of a fraternity reside or meet, especially one located on or near the campus of a college or university.


Greek house

From the Greek letters used in the names of fraternities and sororities.

About 50 students live in the average Greek house.

1997 October 30, Brad Wolverton, “Picking a Frat: Alpha to Omega”, in BusinessWeek, retrieved 2013-07-17:

(chiefly US) A building in which the members of a fraternity or sorority reside or meet, especially one located on or near the campus of a college or university.


ground rent

en-noun

ground rent (countable and uncountable, plural ground rents)

"You had better go to the devil and ask him for my ground-rent," he said.

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 99:

(law, real estate) Rent paid under a ground lease, usually long-term or in perpetuity, for a surface right or estate in land where the landowner (surface owner) and the owner of improvements (ground lessor) are separate; the improvements are effectively security for the payment of the rent.

retributie

1. rent under a ground lease for a surface estate, paid by a ground lessor to a surface owner


Forbidden City

Calque of Chinese 紫禁城 (Zǐjìnchéng, literally “Purple Forbidden City”, or “Imperial Forbidden City”).

calque

The northern division of Peking consists of three inclosures one within another, each surrounded by its own wall. The first contains the imperial palace and the abodes of the different members of the imperial household ;[...]
The first inclosure, which is called the forbidden city, being the seat of ‘ the dragon’s throne,’ the place from which emanates the authority that governs one-third of mankind, is the most splendid, as well as the most important part of Peking. According to the notions of a Chinese, all within its walls is gold and silver.

1834 February, “Description of the City of Peking.”, in The Chinese Repository, volume II, number 10, Canton, →OCLC, page 438:

And within the Imperial city was the moated Forbidden city, with walls two and one-quarter miles long, plastered with a violet-coloured mortar, whence comes the popular name of the Purple city. The Forbidden city contained the Imperial palaces, which have been converted into a museum.

1968, “PEKING (PEIPING)”, in Encyclopedia Britannica, volume 17, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 532, columns 1, 2:

During the Tang Dynasty 12 centuries ago, even the Forbidden City in Peiping would stay open for three days to allow ordinary citizens to observe the Lantern Festival.

1979 February 11, “Lantern festival enchantment”, in Free China Weekly, Taipei, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 2:

Finally, in October, P'eng was moved from his quarters in the Chungnanhai area of the Forbidden City, where Mao, Liu Shao-ch’i and other Politburo members lived, to a dilapidated house in the Wu Chia Hua Yuan (Wu Family Garden), a compound within the Yuan Ming Park on the northern outskirts of Peking.

1983, Roderick MacFarquhar, The Great Leap Forward, 1958-1960 (The Origins of the Cultural Revolution), volume 2, Columbia University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 235:

The wall surrounding the Chung Nan Hai is high and wide, painted vermilion in keeping with the decor of the Forbidden City. It has a circumference of many miles, intersected at intervals by gates guarded day and night by armed soldiers.

1991, Chris Mullin, The Year of the Fire Monkey (Fiction), London: Chatto & Windus, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 252:

After we toured the Forbidden City and the Great Wall, I held a question-and-answer session with students at Beijing University.

2005, Bill Clinton, My Life, volume II, New York: Vintage Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 435:

Those lucky visitors may be able to discover whether there is any truth to the legend that the Forbidden City, which was the home of China's emperors between 1420 and 1912, is haunted by ghosts who come out just at night.
Usually only VIPs — such as President Trump in 2017 — get to venture into the Forbidden City at night.

2019 February 19, Anna Fifield, “China’s Forbidden City to open to the general public at night for the first time in 94 years”, in The Washington Post, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2019-02-19, WorldViews:

A palace of the Ming dynasty and Qing dynasty located in Dongcheng district, Beijing, China.


rent control

en-noun

rent control (countable and uncountable, plural rent controls)

The official regulation of the amount that may be charged for rented property.


terraced house

(UK) A type of house which shares both sidewalls with the adjacent houses, typical of Victorian and Edwardian housing in English cities.


CHU

Chung Hua University
w:Chung Hua University

Initialism of Chung Hua University, a university in Hsinchu, Republic of China (Taiwan).


council estate

A person who has grown up in a council housing estate is likely to be—indeed, visibly is—more middle class in outlook than a person who has grown up in a slum.

1941, George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn:

(UK) A housing estate consisting, entirely or principally, of council housing.

kaupungin vuokra-asuntoalue

a housing estate consisting of council housing


housing estate

She suggested he was destroying all Sarkozy had achieved in proving that a traditional, Catholic, rightwing area could vote for an ethnic-minority candidate such as her, from a poor housing estate in the provinces, the Muslim child of illiterate north African parents. She vowed to "resist" Fillon.

2011 December 14, Angelique Chrisafis, “Rachida Dati accuses French PM of sexism and elitism”, in The Guardian:

Whitney is absorbed especially by Dublin's unglamorous interstitial zones: the new housing estates and labyrinths of roads, watercourses and railways where the city peters into its commuter belt.

2014 August 23, Neil Hegarty, “Hidden City: Adventures and Explorations in Dublin by Karl Whitney, review: 'a necessary corrective' [print version: Re-Joycing in Dublin, p. R25]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Review):

That project would mean reinstating 5½ miles of decommissioned line between Tavistock, where a new single-platform railway station would be built alongside the 750-home housing estate currently under construction, and Bere Alston.

2021 November 17, Andrew Mourant, “Okehampton: a new dawn for Dartmoor”, in RAIL, number 944, page 43:

A group of often architecturally similar buildings constructed at the same time, primarily for residential accommodation.


block of flats

The train service on this circuitous route to the City was withdrawn during the 1914-1918 war, and never restored. The track between Addison Road and Ravenscourt Park was removed, and the site is now occupied by blocks of flats.

1947 May and June, “Richmond-Ludgate Hill Train, London & South Western Railway, at Addison Road Station About 75 Years Ago”, in Railway Magazine, page unnumbered (frontispiece):

The crowning glory of the property developments was then built in 1927-29 as a luxury block of flats above Baker Street […]. Chiltern Court became the home of authors H G Wells and Arnold Bennett.

2024 January 24, Stefanie Foster, “Metro-land's legacy for today's railway”, in RAIL, number 1001, pages 58-59:

A residential building consisting of apartments.


overdeveloped

Excessively developed, as:
(real estate, land use) Overbuilt.


teardown

The downtown redevelopment involved numerous teardowns.

Architect and clients also agreed that a teardown wasn’t an option.

2009 February 5, Ernest Beck, “Striped With Light”, in New York Times:

(real estate) A well-maintained structure purchased and torn down to make way for a new structure.


EIK

(real estate advertising) A kitchen with room for a table and chairs, or with a counter meant for eating on and room for barstools.


subletter

(property law, real estate) Synonym of sublessor.


mansionette

From mansion + -ette. Doublet of maisonette.

gone to London to work and had left her mansionette flat empty. The mansionettes stood on high ground overlooking the docks.

(UK) A flat that spans two or more floors, and often has its own entrance (i.e. not off a communal hallway).


cohousing

There are close to 200 of these cohousing communities across the country – according to The Cohousing Association – designed to facilitate community through shared resources and common spaces. Members admit there are many tradeoffs to living in such close proximity to their neighbors including navigating a shared chore list and mutual financial arrangement. But many also say that they've found a way to conquer the loneliness and isolation that plagues so many Americans — especially today's parents.

2024 December 6, Katia Riddle, “How to be not lonely? 'Cohousing' is an answer for some people”, in Shots, NPR, retrieved 2024-12-07:

Housing in which the residents' private space is supplemented by communal facilities such as a shared kitchen and/or dining room.


four door house

four door house (plural four door houses)

(real estate) In Taiwan, a house with four doors, specifically a house with a garage, a garage door that connects to the home, a front door, and a back door.


mobile home

A prefabricated home built in a factory, rather than on site, and then taken to the place where it will be occupied.


log cabin

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-log cabin.wav

A dwelling made from logs; especially, a small and simple one.


welfare hotel

A hotel where people receiving welfare can stay until permanent housing is found for them.


DINO

Modelled after RINO (“Republican in name only”).

(real estate, humorous) Acronym of developer in name only — a real estate development company or individual that is still active, but does not have any developments underway due to a downturn in the market or in the economy in general.


sweat equity

sweat equity (countable and uncountable, plural sweat equities)

My wife and I have put a lot of sweat equity into our home: I did the renovations and she did the redecorating.

Mr. TALLE: His time and his wife's time in that article is called the "sweat equity".
Mr. GRIGGS: Look at the fun they had doing it.

1949, U.S. House of Representatives, Housing amendments of 1949: Hearing before the Committee on Banking and Currency, U.S. Govt. Printing Office, page 203:

(idiomatic, real estate, business) An investment of labour, typically by the owner and often his or her family, usually in a small business or personal residence that increases the value of the business or residence.


council house

The modern council house, with its bathroom and electric light, is smaller than the stockbroker's villa, but it is recognizably the same kind of house, which the farm labourer’s cottage is not.

She maintains that the internet should face similar curbs to TV because young people are increasingly living online. "It's totally different, someone at Google watching the video from the comfort of their office in San Francisco to someone from a council house in London, where this video is happening right outside their front door."

2012 April 19, Josh Halliday, “Free speech haven or lawless cesspool – can the internet be civilised?”, in the Guardian:

(UK, Ireland) A house built and operated by local town councils, usually of relatively low price and lived in by the working class and welfare recipients.

kunnan omistama vuokra-asunto

house built and operated by a local council


home loan

(countable) A loan taken for the purpose of purchasing a house, or other type of residential property.


public housing

Rental accommodation that is subsidized by public funds and provided for disadvantaged groups such as low-income earners, social security recipients, the elderly and people with disabilities.


balloon payment

balloon payment (plural balloon payments)

So called because the debt becomes inflated like a balloon as a result of the compound interest accumulating on the large sum.

(business, real estate) An unusually large payment due at the end of the term of a loan agreement.


council housing

Living in council housing made life more affordable for her family.

(UK, Ireland) Housing provided (and usually built) by the local authority at a low rent, typically intended for those on low incomes.


granny flat

Hundreds of people have built houses, granny flats, apartments and log cabins without planning permission across Ireland in the last 15 years.

2023 August 5, Amy Molloy, “Hundreds build houses, granny flats and log cabins without permissions”, in Irish Independent, page 5:

AARP, the research and advocacy behemoth, has begun aggressively promoting the spread of these units, often referred to as casitas or, more cheekily, granny flats.

2023 September 6, Michelle Cottle, “The Magic of the Granny Flat”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, informal) A dwelling detached from a primary residence, traditionally designated for a member of an extended family to live in.


casone

A type of peasant's house in the Veneto.


jects

A few days later, Pharoah, now eleven, told a friend: "I worry about dying, dying at a young age, while you're little. I'll be thinking about I want to get out of the jects. […]

1991, Alex Kotlowitz, There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in The Other America, Anchor Books, published 1992, →ISBN, page 264:

Monie grew up in the music industry, not in the jects.

2006 December 28, TJ Xenos [username], “Re: Monie Love gets fired for making Young Jeezy sound like a tard...”, in rec.music.hip-hop (Usenet):

"Whattaya expect? We in the 'jects, baby, a project for rejects," Jasmine sneers.

2010, Carol Taylor, The Ex Chronicles, New York N.Y.: Plume, →ISBN, page 200:

Olander grew up around the “jects,” but wasn't born there; he actually lived about two blocks away in a three-story house with his mother and younger siblings.

2011, Garrett S. King, Something to Live For, Xlibris, →ISBN, page 116:

(US, slang) A multi-story low-income housing development; projects.


wartime house

Using funds from the sale of their wartime house in Montreal, they purchased a handsome old log house on seven acres of white sand beach in the then still-active fishing community of Port Joli.

1997, Marion Kelsey, Victory Harvest: Diary of a Canadian in the Women's Land Army, →ISBN, page xvi:

On average, a four-room wartime house cost $2,700, and a six-room $3,400. The homes were a hot commodity.

2001, John Larsen, Maurice Richard Libby, Moose Jaw: People, Places, History, →ISBN, page 150:

The house that inspired this prayer is a small wartime house in a working-class neighbourhood in Edmonton, Alberta.

2005, Gregory A. Scofield, Singing Home the Bones, →ISBN, page 109:

Originally, a tiny wartime house sat on the corner lot facing on Dunsmure St.

2008 December 20, Tracy Hanes, “Christmas comes early for Hamilton family”, in The Star, Toronto, Canada, retrieved 2014-06-11:

If you were driving from Saskatoon to Vanscoy early this morning, you may have seen a wartime house from Spadina Crescent rolling down the highway.

2014 June 5, Alyssa McMurtry, “Out with the old, in with the new”, in The StarPhoenix, Saskatoon, Canada, retrieved 2014-06-11:

(Canada) Any of a large number of modest, wooden frame houses, typically of Cape-Cod design, built in municipalities across Canada during the 1940s under the federal government's Wartime Housing Limited program.


property management

The operation, control and oversight of real estate.


STCA

(real estate) Initialism of subject to council approval.


Magdalene asylum

Magdalene asylum (plural Magdalene asylums)

Named after Mary Magdalene, traditionally associated with prostitution and patron saint of penitent sinners.

(historical) A religious prison for prostitutes and unmarried mothers, usually as a source of forced labour.


wurley

I took a walk amongst them [the First Nations of the Adelaide Plains] who were in their wurlies, saw a collection of naked boys and girls, men and women, either entirely or half so. They are quite innocent in this respect and the women think nothing of (stalking) bolt upright in perfect nudity.

1844, Irene [Margaret] Watson, quoting William Anderson Cawthorne, “Naked: The Coming of the Cloth”, in Aboriginal Peoples, Colonialism and International Law: Raw Law (Indigenous Peoples and the Law; GlassHouse Book), Abingdon, Oxon., New York, N.Y.: Routledge, published 2015, →ISBN, page 60:

They were good wurleys at the beginning of the winter, but towards the latter end of the winter they got turned out of them by the fleas—which they frequently do. They have been turned out of the last wurley some time in August; and I gave them a lot of reeds and tried to persuade them to build some more wurleys. They said they did not require them as they were going to corroboree, and they did not like building new wurleys—they must have a make-shift wurley.

1860 September 26, George Taplin, “Report of the Select Committee of the Legislative Council, upon ‘the Aborigines;’ together with Minutes of Evidence and Appendix. Ordered by the Legislative Council to be Printed, 16th October, 1860. [No. 165]”, in Proceedings of the Parliament of South Australia; with Copies of the Documents Ordered to be Printed, volume III, Adelaide, S.A.: Printed by authority by W. C. Cox, government printer, Victoria-Square, →OCLC, paragraph 1326, page 57:

Poor [William John] Wills's remains we found lying in the wurly in which he died, and where [John] King, after his return from seeking the natives, had buried him with sand and rushes.

1862 February 1, “The Burke and Wills Australian Exploring Expedition”, in The Illustrated London News, volume XL, number 1129, London: Printed & published by George C. Leighton, 198 Strand, →OCLC, page 128, column 3:

A woman is supposed to signify her consent to the marriage by carrying fire to her husband's wurley [footnote: This word wurley is from the language of the Adelaide tribe. The Narrinyeri word is mante. I have used "wurley" because it is more generally understood by the colonists.] and making his fire for him. An unwilling wife will say, when she wishes to signify that she was forced into marriage with her husband, "I never made any fire in his wurley for him." In case of a man having two wives, the elder is always regarded as the mistress of the hut or wurley.

1874, George Taplin, “Social Customs”, in The Narrinyeri: An Account of the Tribes of South Australian Aborigines Inhabiting the Country around the Lakes Alexandrina, Albert, and Coorong, and the Lower Part of the River Murray: Their Manners and Customs. Also, an Account of the Mission at Port Macleay, Adelaide, S.A.: J. T. Shawyer, printer, King William Street, →OCLC, section 1 (Marriage), page 9:

And so those boys with stealthy pace / Returned the saddles to their place; / Then to their wurly quickly hied, / No doubt delighted with their ride.

1875, Robert Bruce, “The Black Boys’ Ride: A True Story”, in The Dingoes and Other Tales, Adelaide, S.A.: Printed at "Advertiser" and "Chronicle" offices, →OCLC, stanza 10, page 74:

After hunting through the forest into the afternoon I came to the wurley that had inside it a coolamon and a possum-skin cape, a club, a hatchet with a metal head, and a knife with a horn handle.

2012, Noel Beddoe, The Yalda Crossing, St. Lucia, Qld.: University of Queensland Press, →ISBN:

Before night fell, they made themselves a shelter like a wurly by collecting large Wollemi pine fronds from the forest floor, leaning them against each other to make a peaked hut and joining them together with vines. It would offer some protection while they slept.

2012, Maggie Meyer, Joan Small, “Monsters of the Cretaceous”, in Big Foot Adventures Down Under (Spirits Alive Series; 1), [Gordon, N.S.W.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 164:

(chiefly South Australia) An Australian indigenous shelter made from small branches with the leaves still attached.


Fontainebleau

census-designated place
census-designated place

Miami-Dade County
Miami-Dade County#English

A census-designated place in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States.


knight's fee

(law, historical) The specific amount of land giving rise to such requirements generally, being sometimes a hide or less and sometimes six or more hides.


caballeria

From Spanish caballería, from caballero (“horseman, gentleman, cowboy”) + -ía (“-y: forming nouns”), from Late Latin caballārius (“horseman, rider”), from Latin caballus (“horse”) + -ārius (“-ary”). Doublet of cavalry and chivalry.

der

(historical, law) A medieval Spanish land tenure equivalent to a knight's fee, held under an obligation for military service.


microhouse

en-noun

microhouse (countable and uncountable, plural microhouses)

From micro- + house, in the music sense attributed to Philip Sherburne.


Trianon

/ˈtɹiːəˌnɒn/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Trianon.wav

From French Trianon, the name of a hamlet that formerly occupied the site on which the Grand Trianon would be built.

Either of the Grand Trianon and Petit Trianon, two royal palaces constructed in Versailles, France, in the 17th and 18th centuries.

(metonymically, historical) The Treaty of Trianon, a peace treaty signed in the Grand Trianon on 4 June 1920, which formally ended World War I between most of the Allies and the Kingdom of Hungary, leaving Hungary as a landlocked state with less than one-third of its prewar area.


bidworthy

en-adj

bidworthy (comparative more bidworthy, superlative most bidworthy)

more bidworthy (comparative)
most bidworthy (superlative)

(real estate, housing market) Worthy of a bid or offer


microhome

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-microhome.wav

Coordinate term: microapartment

Containertopia and Mr. Kloehn’s mobile shelters draw from the tiny house movement, a shift to a more ascetic way of living that has inspired entire microhome villages in places like Olympia, Wash., and Madison, Wis., as well as isolated examples in countless backyards.

2015 October 13, Sarah Maslin Nir, “Thinking Outside the Box by Moving Into One”, in New York Times:

Get ready for a new wave of “micro-homes” – tiny flats, often in converted office buildings, that are roughly the size of a typical bedroom yet supposedly big enough for two people to live in.

2017 February 11, Rupert Jones, “Welcome to rabbit-hutch Britain, land of the ever-shrinking home”, in The Guardian:

A very small domestic dwelling, constructed at that size in order to save environmental resources.


Sandringham

The town in Newfoundland is named after Sandringham House to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.

King's Lynn and West Norfolk
King's Lynn and West Norfolk#English

A village and civil parish in King's Lynn and West Norfolk district, Norfolk, England (OS grid ref TF6928).


paramount title

en-noun

paramount title (plural paramount titles)

(law, real estate) A claim to the title of a property, which is superior and stronger in comparison to all other claims.


personal covenant

personal covenant (plural personal covenants)

(countable, law, real estate) A legal agreement or promise regarding a piece of real estate, which binds the party who makes the covenant but which does not pass from one owner to another when the land is conveyed.


real covenant

(law, real estate) A legal agreement or promise regarding a piece of real estate, which passes from one owner to another when the land is conveyed and which is said to run with the land.


covenant of warranty

covenant of warranty (plural covenants of warranty)

(countable, law, real estate) A legal agreement or promise, one of the English covenants of title and future covenants, whereby the grantor of a property assures the grantee that he or she will not be subject to the claims of someone with a paramount title, thereby guaranteeing the status of the title that is being conveyed.


chawl

Borrowed from Marathi चाळ (cāḷ), from Sanskrit. Doublet of cell.

I came from a chawl, and when I started out main zyada baat nahi karta tha, mera haath zyada chalta tha (both laugh!

2016 June 19, “Tiger Shroff: My father is the original hero, he doesn’t have to try like me. I fake it.”, in The Times of India:

Dhirubhai Ambani's first home in Mumbai was nearly as humble as the ones the gawking labourers inhabit: a pigeonhole chawl four kilometres from Antilia, in the pushcart-clogged trading neighbourhood of Bhuleshwar.

2017, Sunil Khilnani, Incarnations, Penguin, page 419:

A type of residential tenement building found in India, typically for poor working-class people.


microapartment

Coordinate term: microhome

While there’s no reliable data on micro-housing, some notable policies and projects are popping up on that front too. Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg waived the city’s zoning standards to allow micro-apartments.

2016 December 28, Dan Hernandez, “Is an even smaller New York apartment the key to sustainable living?”, in The Guardian:

Another big player in this sector is the London-based developer Inspired Asset Management, which has created hundreds of “micro-apartments”, many of them located in Croydon, south London.


microhousing

“All the technologies I describe in my novel already exist,” she said. “Automised job appraisals, AI-generated scripts, micro-housing, the coupling of surveillance and insurance, the burning council estates: it’s all already here. You just have to look at it and join the dots.”

2019 June 30, Philip Oltermann, quoting Sibylle Berg, “German sci-fi fans lap up dystopian tales of Brexit Britain”, in The Guardian:


tulou

zh-m

土樓／土楼 (tǔlóu)

A fortified Chinese rural dwelling made from earth, unique to the Hakka in the mountainous areas in southeastern Fujian.


BPO

en-noun

BPO (countable and uncountable, plural BPOs)

broker's price opinion
broker's price opinion#English

(real estate) Initialism of broker's price opinion.


widow foreclosure

widow foreclosure (plural widow foreclosures)

(real estate) Foreclosure on a reverse mortgage after the deedholder passes away, while the spouse resides on the property.


Hampton Court

Richmond upon Thames
Richmond upon Thames#English

A former royal palace, now a tourist attraction, in the borough of Richmond upon Thames, Greater London (OS grid ref TQ1568).


HOA

homeowner association
homeowner association#English

(real estate) Initialism of homeowner association.


homeowner association

homeowner association (plural homeowner associations)

(real estate) A private association formed by a real estate developer for the purpose of marketing, managing, and selling homes and lots in a residential subdivision.

kodinomistajien yhdistys

do not exist in Finland, but used when discussing other countries


PMC

(real estate) Initialism of property management company or corporation.


stately home

The stately homes of England
How beautiful they stand,
To prove the upper classes
Have still the upper hand,
Tho' the fact that they have to be rebuilt
And frequently mortgaged to the hilt
Is inclined to take the guilt
Off the gingerbread.

The tax man's taken all my dough
And left me in my stately home
Lazing on a sunny afternoon

'There's just something nice about the idea that you can move without being seen - that you can go down there and come up here. I grew up in a stately home,' he continued without a trace of boastfulness, 'and there actually was a secret passage. [...]'

2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, pages 266–267:

(British) Synonym of country house, especially one owned by the aristocracy


rent-controlled

‘I have no money,’ she said simply. ‘This apartment is rent-controlled.’

2002, Zadie Smith, The Autograph Man, Penguin Books (2003), page 288:


chap lau chu

chap lau chu (plural chap lau chus or chap lau chu)

chap lau chus (plural)
chap lau chu (plural)

Singapore, original Hokkien pronunciation

[t͡säp̚˩ lɑʊ˩ t͡sʰuˑ˩]

Borrowed from Hokkien 十樓厝 (cha̍p-lâu-chhù, “ten-storey house”). Originating in the 1960s, with the building of pioneering HDB satellite flats.

zh-l

Now empty, Singapore's chap lau chu in Commonwealth are the highlight of a quirky showcase… A group of recent Nanyang Technological University (NTU) graduates have zoomed in on the chap lau chu, Singapore's first 10-storey flats, built in 1962 by the Housing Board in Commonwealth Drive. … While the chap lau chu were not the tallest flats ever built - the Singapore Improvement Trust, the predecessor of the Housing Board, built the now- demolished 14-storey Forfar House in Queenstown in the 1950s

2014 July 6, Kezia Toh, “Ghost town in Commonwealth Drive comes alive”, in The Straits Times (Singapore):

Even as the years go by, chap lau chu still binds me to my childhood friends, many of whom have moved away to start their own families.

2015 August 20, Aw Cheng Wei, “My fond memories of 'chap lau chu'”, in The Straits Times (Singapore):

The cluster of 10-storey blocks of flats also referred to as Chap Lau Chu, while not aesthetically pleasing in the context of today’s public housing designs, served as the face of the HDB’s public housing efforts and were featured on the backs of the new nation’s very first one dollar currency note.

2015 October 2, Jerome Lim, “Goodbye to the $1 flats”, in OMY:

The chap kau chus were very alluring to everyone who passed by the dilapidated estate, attracting long gazes and inducing slower footsteps.

2015 November 5, Bryan Chua, “A Forgotten Past: Bidding Farewell To Commonwealth Drive Blocks 74 to 79”, in The Smart Local:

The seven blocks of brown and beige-coloured flats were the country's first 10-storey flats, and were colloquially known as chap lau chu...

2017 October 5, Fabian Koh, “Normanton Park sold en bloc: Singapore's old housing estates that are going, going, gone”, in The Straits Times (Singapore):

(Singapore, colloquial) A ten-storey housing flat built by the Singapore Housing and Development Board (HDB) in the 1960s (now mostly vacated).


ghost home

The house is an example of what is popularly referred to as a "ghost home," a property owned by a nonresident (sometimes noncitizen) who has no plans on ever moving in.

2015 April 24, Joshua Alvarez, “Real Estate: Are ‘ghost homes’ becoming a problem?”, in Palo Alto Online, US, retrieved 2018-04-27:

So then we get to the deliberate ghost home investors. How do we tell that the empty flat has been purposely left unoccupied?

2017 May 13, Jimmy Thomson, "Ghost investment properties could be harder to exorcise than it seems," domain.com (Australia) (retrieved 27 April 2018)

The outcome of the new tax is being watched closely as cities around the world struggle with the rise of so-called ghost homes: scarcely used residences in prime urban locations seen by investors as a safe way to park their cash.

2018 April 26, Natalie Obiko Pearson, “Ghost-home tax fills Vancouver coffers but rentals remain scarce”, in Financial Post, Canada, retrieved 2018-04-27:

(idiomatic, real estate) A residence intentionally kept vacant by an absentee owner, especially a foreign investor, as a financially safe asset to be liquidated at a convenient time.


blockface

(real estate) The side of a block that faces a given street.


mixed-use

(real estate) Of an urban development: blending residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment uses, where those functions are physically and functionally integrated, and have routes that connect them for pedestrians.


Hofburg

A week later, via the prescribed channels, he requested an audience with His Majesty, and one morning, three weeks after that, he found himself face to face with His Supreme Commander-in-Chief in the Hofburg.

2002, Josepth Roth, translated by Michael Hofmann, The Radetsky March, Folio Society, published 2015, page 14:

In the 1780s however these were just a couple of strands in the mayhem of Josephine reform, with decrees streaming out of the Hofburg […] at an astounding rate.

2013, Simon Winder, Danubia, Picador, published 2014, page 266:

(chiefly historical) The principal residence of the Habsburg dynastic rulers (and, later, of the president of Austria), located in Vienna; (metonymically), the Habsburg regime.


tenant at will

(law, real estate, property law) One who holds lands at the will of the owner.


white land

en-noun

white land (countable and uncountable, plural white lands)

So called because it is not shaded on the map.

(real estate) Land not included in a plan for development, demolition, etc.


Christiansborg Palace

a palace and government building on the islet of Slotsholmen in central Copenhagen, Denmark. It is the seat of the Danish Parliament (Folketinget), the Danish Prime Minister's Office, and the Supreme Court of Denmark.


scavenger sale

The remaining lots were subsequently lost on scavenger sales because of some $140,000 in delinquent taxes.

1947, Reports of the Tax Court of the United States, volume 8, page 906:

(real estate) The sale of a property whose previous tenants were ejected for not paying rent.


predeveloper

(real estate) An agent who acquires land for the purpose of later development.


off the plan

Buying off the plan has become a more popular way of buying property in recent years.

2010, Melissa Opie, Stephen Zamykal, Property Rich: Secure Your Financial Freedom:

Of a building, especially a residence, from the plan of a proposed building before it is actually built.

楼花

building that is put up for sale before construction is completed

期房

unfinished housing to be paid for in advance by the buyer and then completed within a certain time frame


clearance rate

(crime, law enforcement) The proportion of crimes that are solved by the police with respect to the total number of crimes reported.


lease for lives

lease for lives (plural leases for lives)

term of years determinable
term of years determinable

(law, England and Wales, historical) A kind of lease for a term of years determinable, popular in the 17th and 18th centuries, which typically named three individuals – the "lives" – and determined upon the death of all three.


iBuyer

So iBuyers - these are companies like Opendoor, Redfin and Zillow. And they started doing this a few years ago - buying homes.

2021 November 8, Stacey Vanek Smith, “iBuyers, Zillow, and 'the lemons problem'”, in The Indicator from Planet Money, via NPR:

(real estate) A company which offers to buy real estate (usually residential) quickly for cash, often without the level of due diligence exercised by traditional buyers and using computer algorithms to determine price.


exchanging contracts

exchange of contracts
exchange of contracts#English

Alternative form of exchange of contracts.


exchange contracts

en-verb

exchange contracts (third-person singular simple present exchanges contracts, present participle exchanging contracts, simple past and past participle exchanged contracts)

exchanges contracts (present singular third-person)
exchanging contracts (participle present)
exchanged contracts (participle past)
exchanged contracts (past)

legal representative
legal representative

(law, England and Wales, Northern Ireland, chiefly by legal practitioners) To create a contract for the disposition of an estate in land between negotiating parties, by a process which is immediately followed by the exchange of executed counterparts of the contract between each party's legal representative.


exchange of contracts

en-noun

exchange of contracts (plural exchanges of contracts)

(law, England and Wales, Northern Ireland) The act of exchanging contracts.


fee simple absolute in possession

fee simple absolute in possession (uncountable)

From fee simple + absolute + in possession.

(law, England and Wales, formal, idiomatic) The unqualified and unrestricted ownership of an estate in land; freehold tenure.


term of years

(law, formal) An estate in land held under a lease which is not perpetual or indefinite in length, though in some cases may be contingent on some guaranteed occurrence.