Housekeeps

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Takes care of a home by doing its cleaning, tidying, cooking and general upkeep on a regular basis
2. Looks after the running of a residence, including its cleaning, supplies and day-to-day maintenance
3. Runs a household by attending to its chores, order and domestic needs for the people who live there

Etymology: "Housekeeps" is the third-person singular present form of "housekeep," a verb that English formed by working backwards from an older noun. The noun "housekeeping" came first, describing the management of a household, and speakers later trimmed its ending to create a verb meaning to run a home day to day. This kind of reverse formation is common in English, where a noun ending that looks like a verbal suffix gets stripped away to leave a new verb. The base "housekeep" is itself a compound of "house" and "keep," so the verb keeps both ideas at once: the dwelling and the act of looking after it. The "-s" on "housekeeps" simply marks the present tense for a singular subject, as in "she housekeeps for the family."

Synonyms: keep house