Homed

Part of speech: verb, adjective

Definitions

1. Having a specific place of residence
2. finding comfort and safety in a familiar environment
3. relating to one's origin or place of belonging

Etymology: Verbs and adjectives derived from "home" are common enough, but the word "homed" is simply the past tense and participle of the verb "home," meaning to provide someone with a home. Its history runs through the noun it comes from, which is one of English's oldest and most stubborn survivors. That noun descends from Old English "hām," which meant a dwelling or village, a sense it kept long before it came to mean a family's house. It traces back through Proto-Germanic "haimaz" to a Proto-Indo-European root built on "*ḱey-," meaning "to lie." The idea seems to be a place where one lies down or settles, and the same root gave Greek "kṓmē," a village, and Latin "civis," a citizen. Few readers would guess that "home" and "citizen" share a root, though the connection is plausible rather than certain in every detail.

Synonyms: returned, directed, aimed

Antonyms: lost, strayed, wandered