[Ads-l] unhoused---and "houseless"

[Baker, John]

YBQ takes the proverb, “a house is not a home,” only back to Polly Adler’s 1964 book of that name.  It is, however, older.

The 1826 example does not appear to be the proverbial expression, nor is it in the form of the expression.  The issue in the case was whether the place of settlement of a young woman, who was deemed a pauper who must be supported by the town in which she was settled, was in Kennebunkport, where her father-in-law lived, or Parsonsfield.  The passage reads:  “It is true, her father in law was not bound to maintain her; but no facts appear shewing that his house was not a home for her, so long as she inclined to remain in his family.”  So while the court’s language used “house” and “home” in different senses, it did not focus on that difference; rather, the distinction was between her father-in-law’s home and her own home (which, for legal purposes, were held to be the same).

The distinction between “house” and “home” seems to have become popular in the late 19th century.  In the Washington Post (Feb. 4, 1895) is an example that uses the proverbial phrasing:  “In setting forth the qualities desirable in a husband, the speaker said “he should first be a sincere and a loving husband, for where conjugal love is a stranger a house is not a home.””

For another early example, from the Logansport (Ind.) Pharos-Tribune (May 29, 1895) (Newspapers.com):  “”Birth, marriage and death,” answered the younger man.  “one of our Cambridge philosophers has said that a house was not a home until these three things had happened in it, until the walls were saturated with joy and grief.””

For a more recent use (but still earlier than Adler’s book), which is perhaps more of an unqualified use of the proverbial expression, see Schwarze v. Schwarze, 163 A.2d 212, 213 (N.J. Super. Ct. Ch. Div. 1960):  “However, renting rooms, standing alone as in this case, does not convince anyone of a sincere effort to live as man and wife.  To be sure, people do have to have a roof over their heads, but a house is not a home.  There must be more than a shelter from the weather.”


John Baker



From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> On Behalf Of James Landau
Sent: Wednesday, September 16, 2020 9:24 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: unhoused---and "houseless"

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On  Tue, 15 Sep 2020 22:56:06 Zone-0400   Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM<mailto:hwgray at GMAIL.COM>> wrote:Subject:

>Well, it is the case, as has long since been noted, that "a house is not a home."
This was the title of a 1964 book by Polly Adler, about her experiences as a brothel madam.  Google Books has this expression in 1826
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Maine_Reports/vTQtAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=a+house+is+not+a+home&pg=PA51&printsec=frontcover<https://www.google.com/books/edition/Maine_Reports/vTQtAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=a+house+is+not+a+home&pg=PA51&printsec=frontcover>
Parsonfield v. Kennebunkport in Maine Reports: Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Judicial Court page 51
James Landau
jjjrlandau at netscape.com<mailto:jjjrlandau at netscape.com>

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