Other forms: housings
Housing is the buildings people live in, taken together. Social housing, the housing market, a housing shortage.
It is the word of policy rather than of home, which is why it appears in every argument about supply and price. It also means a protective casing in engineering, as a bearing housing is.
1nounhousingThe buildings people live in, taken together.
“The city needs more cheap housing for young families.”
housing is a building.
From house plus -ing, in Middle English.
Middle English
housynge
English, today
housing
Built from
From Middle English housynge, housinge, from housen (“to house, shelter; receive into one's house”), equivalent to house + -ing. Cognate with Scots housing (“housing”), Old Frisian hūsinge (whence stq Huzenge); compare also Dutch huizing, behuizing (“housing”), Low German husing, hüsing (“housing”), German Behausung (“housing”), Swedish inhysing (“housing”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA