"homework" - Word of the Day from the OED

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homework

SECOND EDITION 1989

[HOME n.¹ 15b.] 

    1. Work done at home, esp. as distinguished from work done in a shop or factory. Also attrib.

a1683 B. WHICHCOTE Sel. Serm. (1698) 402 Wherefore let every Man, in the first place, look after his Homework; what he hath to do at Home. 1856 KANE Arct. Expl. II. viii. 85 Bonsall and Kane took the entire home-work on themselves today. 1861 G. MOORE Lost Tribes xviii. 364 One [apartment] more open and larger is reserved for visitors, or..is used for spinning or other home-work. 1901 Act 1 Edw. VII c. 22 §110 Prohibition of home work in places where there is infectious disease. 1907 Rep. Sel. Comm. Home Work in Parl. Papers VI. 61/1 Any instance of sweating in home work in connection with such things as ladies' jackets. 1908 Franco-Brit. Exhib., Women's Section 64 Frame of Quilting and Embroidery, lent by Home Work Co-operative Society. 1935 Times Lit. Suppl. 21 Dec. 882/1 The particularly mean swindlers who prey on the unemployed, either by ‘homework’ or by salaried jobs..are duly pilloried.

    b. Phr. to do one's homework: to do the preparatory work for a meeting, discussion, etc.

1934 R. STOUT Fer-de-lance iii. 40 There's three things I want to know. Or am I supposed to go up front and do my home work? 1959 Listener 6 Aug. 200/2 The Soviet reporter had been ‘doing his homework’ to some effect. 1966 M. CATTO Bird on Wing ii. 36, I have taken the trouble to do my homework on him. I know more about him than he thinks! 1971 Guardian 25 Feb. 15/2 The Government, says the report, appears not to have done its homework in considering how local radio should be financed.

    2. Lessons and exercises to be done by a school-child at home.

1889 A. E. FLETCHER Sonnenschein's Cycl. Educ. (ed. 2) 155/1 Written home-work. 1897 C. DUKES in P. A. Barrett Teaching & Organisation 366 The large amount of homework which is assigned to pupils for preparation alone in the evening. 1905 Westm. Gaz. 28 Jan. 5/2, I think it is a wrong principle altogether to help a child with his home~work. 1970 C. LACEY Hightown Gram. viii. 168 I've just caught two boys in the quad, copying homework.

    3. slang. Petting; also concr., a girl-friend: used esp. in phr. a bit (or piece) of homework.

1942 BERREY & VAN DEN BARK Amer. Thes. Slang §847/3 ‘Petting’, ‘Necking’..homework. 1945 L. LANE How to become a Comedian vii. 75 Bert Errol [a female impersonator], when on the stage, looks a ravishing and beautiful bit of home-work. 1948 PARTRIDGE Dict. Forces' Slang 95 Homework; a piece of homework,..one's sweetheart or temporary girl friend. 1953 E. AMBLER Schirmer Inheritance 177 ‘And that little bit of homework you've got with you?’ ‘Miss Kolin, you mean? She's an interpreter.’ 1968 J. SYMONS Man whose Dreams came True III. v. 171 He produced a dog-eared snap of a girl in a bikini. ‘How's that for a piece of homework?’

    Hence home-worker, -working.

1902 A. BALLANTYNE in T. Oliver Dangerous Trades vii. 98 The home-worker..has been left outside the protecting pale of the Factory Acts. 1907 Rep. Sel. Comm. Home Work in Parl. Papers VI. 19/1 The duty of seeing to the sanitary condition of the home workers' premises. 1907 Daily Chron. 11 Feb. 4/4 The success of this home-working experiment under leasehold conditions. 1973 Guardian 17 Oct. 15/8 Most home workers are women..a classic case of powerless employees... They need..the flexibility of working hours that home work allows... The unions, understandably, are completely opposed to home working.

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