any shelter, lodging, or dwelling place
the act of one who houses or puts under shelter
I’ve been frantically thinking, texting, and talking a lot about housing lately. An internship for this upcoming summer would only work out if I could find a place to live for the duration of the internship – within a week. I work best in specifics, so I don’t think it helped that the vague term “housing” could mean “any” place I could find to live.
“I would live under a bridge to make this internship work,” I joked to several people – and I half meant it, too. This was my dream internship: an editorial position with a small company close to home that had connections to the larger publishing industry. The interview process was nerve-wracking precisely because I wanted it so much, and I was so happy when I got the job, that to have it rescinded because I couldn’t find a distant cousin willing to let me live in their attic for the summer didn’t bear thinking of. It frustrated me that I had too many options, rather than not enough, because it meant I had to investigate more of them, and choose from several, and investigation and choosing took time.
Eventually it worked out that I’ll be staying with the Engineer’s grandparents, for which I am exceedingly grateful. I grew up in a home with a mother who is, as the Southern Belle put it, “an honorary Southern lady,” so I know the depth of true hospitality. Housing someone is not just allowing them to sleep under your roof. It is protecting, sheltering, providing a haven. It’s appropriate that the word can be both a verb and a noun. I will be housed. I have found housing. And someday, I hope, I can house and shelter and protect guests of my own.
The Grammar Changeling 