to keep the house

[sitifan]

Mr Green is a man who likes to keep the house. (My bold.)
Source: https://www.englishquiz.org/learn-english-daily/keep-用法/#google_vignette

What does "to keep the house" mean here?

 

[5jj]

It means nothing to this native speaker of BrE.

 

[probus]

Nor to this speaker of AmE. The point of the lesson may be that "keep house" means to do housework, while "keep the house" means to retain ownership of the house.

 

[jutfrank]

It's what a housekeeper does.

 

[sitifan]

The point of the lesson may be that "keep house" means to do housework, while "keep the house" means to retain ownership of the house.

Not really. According to the Chinese in the link, 'keep the house' means 'to stay indoors and not go out'. But I suspect that it might be an obsolete idiom.

 

[5jj]

Not really. According to the Chinese in the link, 'keep the house' means 'to stay indoors and not go out'.

That would be keep to the house.

 

[jutfrank]

According to the Chinese in the link, 'keep the house' means 'to stay indoors and not go out'.

Do you mean that the original sentence is in Chinese and that the example sentence in your OP is a deliberate mistranslation? I'm slightly confused here.

 

[sitifan]

Do you mean that the original sentence is in Chinese and that the example sentence in your OP is a deliberate mistranslation? I'm slightly confused here.

No. You can see the original sentence in the link, which is in English (Mr Green is a man who likes to keep the house.). The explanation and translation are in Chinese.

 

[jutfrank]

And where is the original sentence from? The book by L.G. Alexander? I can't tell if it's a real sentence taken from somewhere or if it was made up specially as an example of use of 'keep the house'.

In any case, if there is any truth that 'keep the house' was once a common expression meaning 'don't go out', I think we can safely say it's not used any longer.

 

[sitifan]

To keep the house (with usage examples from 1542 to 1914) comes under this OED definition:

to keep one's (or the) house: to stay indoors; to be confined to the house, as by illness, etc.; = to keep to the house at to keep to —— 2 at keep v. Phrasal verbs 2. Now rare.

 

[5jj]

To keep the house (with usage examples from 1542 to 1914) comes under this OED definition:

to keep one's (or the) house: to stay indoors; to be confined to the house, as by illness, etc.; = to keep to the house at to keep to —— 2 at keep v. Phrasal verbs 2. Now rare.

I must be getting old. I couldn't find those words anywhere on the page you linked to.

 

[jutfrank]

It's here—entry II.iii.33.a

https://www.oed.com/dictionary/keep_v?tab=meaning_and_use#40079539

 

[Tait-ka]

Sitifan's post that 5jj quoted in #10 is not present in this thread. Is this from some other thread?
Can someone please give me a link to that thread?

 

[5jj]

the link is in the quote box in my post.

 

[Tait-ka]

the link is in the quote box in my post.

There is no link to that post there.

 

[Tait-ka]

When I click on that post, I get this:

 

[emsr2d2]

Sitifan had deleted it! I've now undeleted it. @sitifan, please don't ever delete a post that has received responses and/or someone has quoted.

 

[5jj]

There is no link to that post there.

Thanks to emsr2d2 and jutfrank, you don't need it now, but there is a link there.