Housebuilder

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A company or individual whose business is constructing residential homes, typically for sale to the public
2. A firm or person who builds houses on a commercial scale, usually selling the finished properties to buyers
3. Someone or some business engaged in the construction of dwellings, often developing whole estates of new homes for purchase

Etymology: "Housebuilder" is a plain compound of "house" and "builder," and its parts carry the meaning directly. A "house" is a dwelling, and a "builder" is one who builds, so a housebuilder is someone who constructs houses, whether a tradesperson working on a single home or a company that develops whole estates of them. The second element comes from "build," which descends from Old English "byldan," itself formed from "bold," a dwelling or building. The word therefore carries the older sense of building as making a home, a meaning that survives in the phrase to build a house. The compound is transparent enough that its origin raises no real puzzles, and its use as a noun for construction firms became especially common in modern British English.

Synonyms: builder, homebuilder