longhouse
/lˈɔŋhˌaʊs/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.11 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
2
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A long communal housing of the Iroquois and some other American Indians, the Malaysians, the Indonesians, the Vikings, and many other peoples.
noun
The modern society, perceived as increasingly matriarchal and overly egalitarian, and therefore stifling nonconformity and masculine values.
Derogatory; Slang
Example Sentences
- "They marched in under French Colours and were conducted into the Long House."
- "We met in Council at the Long House."
- "One branch of this numerous people was seated on a beautiful river, known as the “Lonapewihittuck”, where the “long house,” or Great Council Fire, of the nation was universally admitted to be established."
- "The practice of herding together in ‘long houses’ prevents mental and moral improvement and hinders advance in gardening and planting and agricultural developement generally."
- "The Kenyah village frequently consists of a single long house."
- "The Welsh long-houses […] with long sides and opposite doors providing a passage from side to side, and dividing the building roughly in two."
Etymology
From long + house. The sense of outhouse possibly derives from Whittington's Longhouse, a public toilet in medieval London, but first attested in a translation of a similar French expression.