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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marshal lockout n. The REO Realtors often have to go with marshals to what’s called a “marshal lockout,” where the inhabitants of a house refuse to leave until they’re forced out by armed officers. [English Houses & Housing] [full cite] (Mar. 23, 2007)

media room n. Can they be unaware that many new houses come with what are called “media rooms,” with 60-inch-or-larger HDTV screens, surround sound and theater seating? [English Entertainment Houses & Housing Media] [full cite] (Feb. 8, 2008)

milk test n. The most common criteria was what people called the “milk test”—judging a potential home by the ease with which you can buy a pint of milk late at night. [English Houses & Housing] [full cite] (Aug. 23, 2006)

mini-dorm n. Lee said a mini-dorm, which she defined as a number of students renting a house, is not considered a business and cannot be lumped in with boarding and rooming houses. The city can’t prevent groups of people, including students, from renting a home where they’re sharing common areas. [English College Houses & Housing] [full cite] (May. 6, 2007)

mini-dorm n. Victoria Gruber, a plaintiff and president of the Student Government Association at the University of Maryland, pointed out that the council’s “mini-dorm” law restricting the number of students in a rented house—which students and landlords fought—would not have passed had students carried enough clout on the council. [English College Houses & Housing] [full cite] (May. 9, 2007)

minidorm n. Now financial planners and accountants are recommending a wrinkle on the same idea—the minidorm. To use this tactic, says James Avedisian, a tax partner with accountants Coopers & Lybrand, “buy a house on campus for several kids to share and hire your own child as live-in rental manager.” [English College Houses & Housing] [full cite] (May. 9, 2007)

mother-in-law room n. The formal living room has fallen off the map in favor of the Great Room. In some newer homes, (mine included) there is a “living room”—although in my house it is referred to as the “Mother-In-Law Room”—as well as a Great Room. [English Architecture Houses & Housing] [full cite] (Feb. 20, 2008)

mother-in-law unit n. In Colleyville, owners can buy a small, adjacent room, often called a “mother-in-law unit” or “au pair unit.” Some town houses in Bedford and North Richland Hills have front porches. [English Houses & Housing] [full cite] (Jul. 11, 2006)

nail house n. A small shack, primitively built, on the corner of a road in Shanghai, surrounded by high-rise development. Owned by a strong old woman, patronized by night-time drivers. update: ding zi hu (lit. “nail house”): person or household who refuses to move and bargains for unreasonably high compensation when the land is requisitioned for a construction project. [English China Houses & Housing] [full cite] (Mar. 26, 2007)

Neo-Mexiterranean n. There are front porches along the street, condominiums up above, even lofts designed to look like row houses shipped here from the East Coast. Much of the new stuff is generic Bay Area infill—“neo-Mexiterranean” is the wonderful phrase tossed my way by a local architect years ago. And some of it is painful, such as the row houses where the half-inch-thin brick is pasted onto the outer walls alongside brick-red stucco. [English Architecture Houses & Housing New or Nonce] [full cite] (Jun. 14, 2007)

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