Houses & Housing Slang, Jargon, and New Words from Double-Tongued Dictionary

Citations in the Category Houses & Housing

Homes, apartments, rentals, mortgages, real estate, realtors, land, renting, leases, renovation, etc. You can also see entries assigned to this category.

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comp n. In the real-estate industry, they’re known as “comps,” which is short for comparables. If you’re thinking about selling your home or refinancing it, you find comparable homes in your neighborhood that recently sold. That gives you some sense of what your home is worth. [English Houses & Housing Abbreviation] [full cite] (Oct. 26, 2006)

concretable n. Both new additions, which came online when school opened in August, are constructed of concrete portable modules built by Royal Concrete Concepts Inc. of Palm Beach County. Approved by the School Board in January 2006, the “concretables” were assembled over eight days at the beginning of summer vacation and were ready for students less than two months later. [English Architecture Construction & Buildings Houses & Housing] [full cite] (Apr. 9, 2007)

condotel n. Also known as condotels or aparthotels, condo hotels have been growing in popularity as an approach to owning a luxurious second home in a great vacation destination. [English Architecture Houses & Housing] [full cite] (Jun. 19, 2006)

Cracker Chic n. “Cracker Chic” is a new term now relating to a decorating style currently gaining popularity. It consists of very simple and smaller scaled antiques, bungalows and furniture mostly void of ornate carvings and fretwork. The house at Cross Creek is definitely a good example of “Cracker Chic.” [English Architecture Houses & Housing] [full cite] (May. 19, 2007)

cribbing n. So, last week, crews began the work of raising the 80-foot-long house 8 1/2 feet above flood level. Workers used a technique, called “cribbing,” where they jack up the house one foot at a time. The house was completely raised late Tuesday afternoon, but the Farrs won’t be able to move back in right away. [English Construction & Buildings Houses & Housing] [full cite] (May. 16, 2007)

Crispie n. They have bought so much property in England, Spain and in countries in Eastern Europe that they have been dubbed Crispies—short for cash-rich Irish seeking properties in Europe. [English Houses & Housing Jargon] [full cite] (May. 8, 2007)

dark house n. Some of my earliest outdoor memories where the times I spent seated next to my maternal grandmother in a tiny ice shanty situated on Black Lake near Onaway, Michigan. The interior of the structure was just large enough to allow a pair of anglers to sit side-by-side and tall enough for a short person to stand up. In other sections of the Great Lakes these shanties are often referred to as “dark houses,” but they are all the same basic structure. [English Houses & Housing Colloquial] [full cite] (Sep. 2, 2007)

deconstruction n. Instead of having her 1,300-square-foot house bulldozed, she hired Jon Alexander, a contractor who shared her environmentalism and was willing to dismantle the home shingle by beam, and build a replacement with the same two-by-fours.…Ms. Keller was able to reuse around 90 percent of the original house.…Due to rising landfill costs, tighter recycling guidelines and the growing trend toward ecologically sound building methods, this sort of home “deconstruction,” as the practice is called, is starting to catch on. [English Construction & Buildings Houses & Housing Jargon] [full cite] (Oct. 18, 2007)

developer droppings n.pl. In the meantime, when you see what I call “developer droppings” (ugly signage placed in the public right-of-way), please safely grab a load and dispose of it. It’s incredibly tacky, can actually diminish surrounding property values, and it’s also illegal to put it there. [English Houses & Housing New or Nonce Slang] [full cite] (Sep. 10, 2007)

dirty kitchen n. Dirty kitchen (cont.): Actually, that’s the term for a secondary kitchen, often used by Filipinos. As one reader explained to me: “We Filipinos have a small cooking area outside the house where we fry our fish, cook anchovies, etc.—all that smelly stuff.…Filipinos love to cook, but we don’t want the smell and splatters in the real kitchen.” [English Philippines Food & Drink Houses & Housing] [full cite] (Sep. 25, 2007)

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