home
The place where one lives; one's dwelling or native land.
Etymology
Modern English home comes from Old English hām "dwelling, house, estate, village," from Proto-Germanic *haimaz, from PIE *ḱey- meaning "to lie down, to settle, a place of rest." The same root in a different grade produced Greek kōmē "village" and Latin cīvis "citizen" (one who belongs to a settlement), which gave English city, civic, civil, civilisation, and citizen. The Germanic branch is rich with derivatives: Old Norse heimr meant "home, world" (as in the nine worlds of Norse mythology), and German Heim and Dutch heem carry the same meaning. English hamlet (through Old French, from a Germanic diminutive) literally means "little home." The word haunt originally meant "to frequent, to make one's home at" before acquiring its spectral sense. The deep connection between settling, lying down, and belonging shaped the emotional weight this word still carries.
The Journey: *ḱey- → home
*ḱey-
*haimaz
hām
hom, home
home
Cognates Across Languages
These words in other languages descend from the same PIE root *ḱey-. They are not borrowings but independent inheritances from a common ancestor.
| Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Latin | cīvis | citizen |
| Greek | kōmē | village |
| Old Norse | heimr | home, world |
| Gothic | haims | village |
| Lithuanian | šeimà | family |
| Sanskrit | kṣéma | safety, rest |
Did You Know?
The English word hamlet — a small village — is literally a double diminutive of home, borrowed back from French, which had taken the Germanic word and added two diminutive suffixes. Meanwhile, the same PIE root gave Latin cīvis, making home and civilisation distant cousins from the same ancient idea of settling down.