Housekeep

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To run the domestic affairs of a home, such as cooking, shopping and organizing daily routines ; to keep a dwelling clean, tidy and in good order
2. Managing the day-to-day running of a household ; keeping a house or building clean and well maintained
3. Looking after the domestic side of a home, including its upkeep ; tending to the cleanliness and orderliness of living quarters

Etymology: "Housekeep" is a back-formation: English speakers first had the noun "housekeeping", and the verb was later derived from it by treating the -ing ending as if it were a suffix to strip away. The noun "housekeeping" came first, built from "house" and "keeping" (the sense of maintaining or looking after something), so the verb reverses that process rather than building up from a base. The verb carries the same core idea as its noun: to manage the running of a home, keeping things in order and tending to the daily affairs of a household. Because it was formed from an existing noun, it is simpler in construction than many verbs with longer histories, and its meaning stays close to the everyday sense of its parent word.

Synonyms: keep house, manage a household