Word.ws English Dictionary

housel

/ˈhaʊzəl/

housel noun: the Eucharist.

Noun

housel

  1. (archaic) The Eucharist.
    • The Holy Houſel ought to be kept vvith great Diligence and not be permitted to be ſtale, but another be alvvays hallovved anevv for Sick Men in about a Seven-night, or Fortnight, ſo as that it may not be muſty at leaſt.1720, Elfric [i.e., Ælfric of Abingdon]; John Johnson, “A.D. DCCCCLVII. Elfric’s Canons.”, in A Collection of All the Ecclesiastical Laws, Canons, Answers, Or Rescripts, with Other Memorials...
    • She said that he had a fair sweet death through God His goodness with mass-priest to be shriven, holy housel and sick men’s oil to his limbs.1922 February 2, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC

Verb

housel (third-person singular simple present housels, present participle (US) houseling or (UK) houselling, simple past and past participle (US) houseled or (UK) houselled)

  1. (archaic, transitive) To administer the Eucharist to.
  2. (rare, transitive) To prepare for a journey.
    • So housel all our hackneys that they may feel Compunction in their feet, and tire at Highgate.1750, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, Mr. Theobald (Lewis), The Works of Francis Beaumont, and Mr. John Fletcher

Proper noun capitalized: Housel

Housel (plural Housels)

  1. A surname from German.

Forms of housel

Verb
third-person singular presenthousels
present participle UShouseling
present participle UKhouselling
past participle UShouseled
past UShouseled
past participle UKhouselled
past UKhouselled
Proper noun
pluralHousels
alternative formHouseal

Origin of housel

From Middle English housel, from Old English hūsl (“housel, Eucharist, the Host, a sacrifice”), from Proto-Germanic *hunslą (“sacrifice”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱwen- (“holy”). Cognate with Icelandic húsl (“housel”), Gothic 𐌷𐌿𐌽𐍃𐌻 (hunsl, “sacrifice, offering”), Proto-Slavic *svętъ (“holy, sacred”) (OED). The OED cites usage of the noun from the 10th to the 17th century. 19th century use is deliberately archaizing. The verb is attested from the 11th century, and in occasional usage persists into the 19th.

From Middle English houselen, from Old English hūslian (“to administer the sacrament”), from Proto-Germanic *hunslōną (“to sacrifice, offer”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱwen- (“holy”). Cognate with Icelandic húsla (“to housel”), Old Swedish húsla (“to administer the Eucharist to”), Gothic 𐌷𐌿𐌽𐍃𐌻𐌾𐌰𐌽 (hunsljan, “to offer, sacrifice”).

Americanized form of German Hauschild.

Words formed from housel

Words that rhyme with housel

Questions about housel

What does housel mean?
Housel means the Eucharist.
What part of speech is housel?
Housel can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce housel?
Housel is pronounced /ˈhaʊzəl/.

Words near housel in the dictionary

  1. housekept
  2. housekey
  3. housekeys
  4. Houseknecht
  5. Houseknechts
  6. housel
  7. houseleader
  8. houseleaders
  9. houseled
  10. houseleek
  11. houseleeks

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: housel (page history and authors); Housel (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “housel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/housel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.