longhouse
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: longhouses
form: long house
form: long-house
Etymology: From long + house. The sense of outhouse possibly derives from Whittington's Longhouse, a public toilet in medieval London, but first attested in a translation of a similar French expression.
Senses: examples: text: They marched in under French Colours and were conducted into the Long House.
ref: 1751, C. Gist, Journals, page 51:
text: We met in Council at the Long House.
ref: 1753, George Washington, Diary, volume I, page 50:
text: One branch of this numerous people was seated on a beautiful river, known as the “Lonapewihittuck”, where the “long house,” or Great Council Fire, of the nation was universally admitted to be established.
ref: 1826, [James Fenimore Cooper], “Preface”, in The Last of the Mohicans; a Narrative of 1757. […], volume I, Philadelphia, Pa.: H[enry] C[harles] Carey & I[saac] Lea— […], →OCLC, page vi:
text: The practice of herding together in ‘long houses’ prevents mental and moral improvement and hinders advance in gardening and planting and agricultural developement generally.
ref: 1894 May 1, Sarawak Gazette, page 67:
text: The Kenyah village frequently consists of a single long house.
ref: 1912, Hose & al., chapter IV, in Pagan Tribes of Borneo, volume I:
text: The Welsh long-houses […] with long sides and opposite doors providing a passage from side to side, and dividing the building roughly in two.
ref: 1966, G.E. Evans, chapter V, in Pattern under Plough, page 72:
text: The longhouse is an object lesson in community living.
ref: 1971 July 15, Lady, page 88:
text: One day our neighbours came back from a trip into the jungle to visit relatives who still lived in an old-style "long house".
ref: 2005, Paul Carter, Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs, Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin, page 29:
glosses: A long communal housing of the Iroquois and some other American Indians, the Malaysians, the Indonesians, the Vikings, and many other peoples.
examples: text: To make wads and wisps for those that go to the Long-house (you know what I meane).
ref: 1622, M. Alemán, chapter II, in J. Mabbe, transl., Rogue, page 355:
synonyms: word: backhouse
word: backside
word: bog
word: boggard
word: boghouse
word: carsey
word: chamber foreign
word: common house
word: commons
word: Cousin John
word: craphouse
word: danna
word: draught
word: draught-house
word: dunnekin
word: dunny
word: earth closet
word: foreign
word: gang
word: gingerbread office
word: gong
word: gonghouse
word: House of Commons
word: house of ease
word: house of easement
word: house of office
word: issue
word: jacques
word: jakes
word: jakeshouse
word: johnny house
word: karzy
word: khazi
word: kocay
word: little house
word: long drop
word: longhouse
word: necessary
word: necessary house
word: necessary place
word: necessary vault
word: neddy
word: netty
word: outhouse
word: passage house
word: petty
word: petty-house
word: privy
word: privy house
word: purging place
word: retreat
word: shield
word: shithouse
word: shouse
word: siege
word: siegehouse
word: thunderbox
word: usual offices
word: vault
word: wardrobe
word: withdraught
glosses: An outhouse, an outbuilding used for urination and defecation.
examples: text: Incredible witnessing the tone of the longhouse authoritarian liberal regime is that of an obsessive and histrionic ex or overbearing mother trying to gaslight you. The twilight days of the Soviet union at least tried to project an air of masculine competency via propaganda.
ref: 2022 February 19, @giantgio, Twitter:
text: The most important feature of the Longhouse, and why it makes such a resonant (and controversial) symbol of our current circumstances, is the ubiquitous rule of the Den Mother. More than anything, the Longhouse refers to the remarkable overcorrection of the last two generations toward social norms centering feminine needs and feminine methods for controlling, directing, and modeling behavior.
ref: 2023 February 16, L0m3z [pseudonym, Jonathan Keeperman], “What is the Longhouse?”, in First Things:
text: The term "Longhouse" in online discourse, particularly among right wing communities, is a metaphorical concept that describes a society characterized by matriarchal control and the suppression of non-conformity. This concept emphasizes the prioritization of emotional safety and the avoidance of direct conflict, often at the expense of privacy and individual liberties.
ref: 2024 January 28, Ruxandra Teslo, “Political polarisation by gender: a matter of aesthetics?”, in Ruxandra's Substack:
text: As the concept of the “Longhouse” makes clear, the new administration’s use of “gender ideology” rhetoric isn’t just about trans people; it’s about the upending of traditional gender roles.
ref: 2025 February 8, Elisabeth Zerofsky, “Trump Joins a Global War on ‘Gender Ideology’”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
text: Now men are complaining that women are oppressing them. Isn’t the longhouse just a long, male whine about a failure to adequately compete and you’re pretending, “Oh, for the days of the steppe barbarians!” but maybe you should suck it up and actually compete on the grounds that we have in 21st-century America?
ref: 2025 May 1, Ross Douthat, “The New Culture of the Right: Vital, Masculine and Intentionally Offensive”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
related: word: Longhouse
qualifier: far-right subcultures
glosses: The modern society, perceived as increasingly matriarchal and overly egalitarian, and therefore stifling non-conformity and masculine values.