See also: long-house and long house

English edit

 
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
 
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
 
Model of a Nordic Bronze Age longhouse

Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

From long +‎ house. Use for outhouses possibly via Whittington's Longhouse, a public toilet in medieval London, but first attested in translation of a similar French expression.

Noun edit

longhouse (plural longhouses)

  1. A long communal housing of the Iroquois and some other American Indians, the Malaysians, the Indonesians, the Vikings, and many other peoples.
    • 1751, C. Gist, Journals, page 51:
      They marched in under French Colours and were conducted into the Long House.
    • 1753, George Washington, Diary, volume I, page 50:
      We met in Council at the Long House.
    • 1826, James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans, Vol. I, Preface, p. vi:
      ... where the ‘long house’, or Great Council Fire, of the nation was universally admitted to be established.
    • 1894 May 1, Sarawak Gazette, page 67:
      The practice of herding together in ‘long houses’ prevents mental and moral improvement and hinders advance in gardening and planting and agricultural developement generally.
    • 1912, Hose & al., Pagan Tribes of Borneo, Vol. I, Ch. iv:
      The Kenyah village frequently consists of a single long house.
    • 1966, G.E. Evans, chapter V, in Pattern under Plough, page 72:
      The Welsh long-houses... with long sides and opposite doors providing a passage from side to side, and dividing the building roughly in two.
    • 1971 July 15, Lady, page 88:
      The longhouse is an object lesson in community living.
    • 2005, Paul Carter, Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs, Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin, page 29:
      One day our neighbours came back from a trip into the jungle to visit relatives who still lived in an old-style "long house".
  2. (obsolete, euphemistic) An outhouse: an outbuilding used for urination and defecation.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:bathroom
    • 1622, M. Alemán, chapter II, in J. Mabbe, transl., Rogue, page 355:
      To make wads and wisps for those that go to the Long-house (you know what I meane).

Hypernyms edit

Translations edit

References edit

  • Oxford English Dictionary. "long, adj.1 and n."