Talk:house warming

RFV discussion: October 2014–June 2015

The following discussion has been moved from Wiktionary:Requests for verification (permalink).

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house warming

Rfv-sense: The act of welcoming a person/family to their newly purchased or newly rented home.

Not found in Onelook. The only support which I could find for this sense is this comment in the Wikipedia article for Housewarming party: "In some communities, neighbors may bring the housewarming party to the new residents to welcome them." --Hekaheka (talk) 22:41, 17 October 2014 (UTC)

The with-space spelling is certainly less common. “housewarming”, in OneLook Dictionary Search. and “house-warming”, in OneLook Dictionary Search. find just few lemmings. This is certainly attestable. DCDuring TALK 23:50, 17 October 2014 (UTC)

COCA has 84 instances of housewarming, 11 of house-warming, 5 of house warming. All three spellings are used as nominals and attributively. DCDuring TALK 23:58, 17 October 2014 (UTC)

I'm not doubting the spelling, but the sense. The first sense is "party to celebrate moving into a new home", which I think is the usual one. --Hekaheka (talk) 00:52, 18 October 2014 (UTC)

I'd not be surprised that it existed. I take it that any of the three spelling could provide the attestation, not just the least common one, which we call the lemma for some reason. DCDuring TALK 01:21, 18 October 2014 (UTC)

I think I understand the problem with the entry. We should not have an adjective section, as the term does not meet tests for adjectivity such as comparability/gradability or predicate use, nor does it have any distinct meaning when used attributively. The challenged noun sense is the original sense of housewarming, usually used attributively and usually uncountable when a nominal. This is the sense used in housewarming party and housewarming gift. The "party" sense is a countable sense derived from the first, when housewarming came to take formal shape as a party.

If my view is correct, the adjective section should be RfVed to confirm that it does not meet the tests and the challenged sense should have a label (usually used attributively) and should appear before the "party sense". DCDuring TALK 01:52, 18 October 2014 (UTC)

Or not. A "feast/merrymaking" sense goes back at least to Samuel Johnson. So housewarming party is a pleonasm. The adjective sense should still be RfVed IMO. DCDuring TALK 02:33, 18 October 2014 (UTC)

Etymonline says 1570. It looks to me like that's the original sense, which was extended metaphorically to mean a welcome, and the metaphorical sense is what's used attributively. The question is where along the way (if anywhere) has there been a split into separate senses or words? Chuck Entz (talk) 02:44, 18 October 2014 (UTC)

Can one now have a housewarming without a party, a feast, or merry-making? I think so. Certainly one can give a housewarming gift without there being festivities. That Cambridge has housewarming (party) as an entry, even though it should be a pleonasm, suggests to me that housewarming has the challenged sense. Oxford has a definition "A party celebrating a move to a new home" and gives as examples sentences with "housewarming party", ie, its definition is not substitutable into the very usage examples it provides. DCDuring TALK 03:32, 18 October 2014 (UTC)

I think this noun sense is essentially the same as the first noun sense, where party should be interpreted broadly to include small social gatherings. Adjective should get terminated with extreme prejudice. Make housewarming the main form per DCDuring. Renard Migrant (talk) 23:24, 18 October 2014 (UTC)

Per discussion above, I:

1. moved the content from house warming to housewarming,
2. deleted the adjective section,
3. kept the sense that I challenged, as it seems that "housewarming" does not always refer to a party.

--Hekaheka (talk) 15:28, 8 June 2015 (UTC)