Housynge

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Buildings or accommodation that provide shelter and living space for people ; a protective outer case or frame that encloses and guards a machine or its parts
2. Homes and lodgings where people live and find shelter ; a sheath or enclosure that surrounds and protects a mechanical device or its components
3. Dwellings and places of residence that give people a roof over their heads ; a guarding cover or frame that encloses an apparatus to keep it safe

Etymology: "Housynge" is a Middle English spelling of "housing," where "-ynge" is the older way of writing the suffix "-ing." In that period the noun meant something like shelter or lodging, built from "hous" (from Old English "hūs," "house") plus the suffix that turns an action or state into a noun. Its sense of providing a place to live is the one that survives in modern "housing." The word also has a second, separate line of descent. A "housing" was once a horse's cloth covering or saddle trapping, which came into English through Old French "houce," a cloak or covering, probably of Germanic origin. The two strands are unrelated in origin. They converged in English spelling and sound, so the horse-cloth sense is easy to miss today.