Meaning

noun the home and adjacent grounds occupied by a family

noun land acquired from the United States public lands by filing a record and living on and cultivating it under the homestead law

noun dwelling that is usually a farmhouse and adjoining land

originFrom Middle English hamstede, hemstede (attested in placenames), from Old English hāmstede (“homestead”), from Proto-West Germanic *haimastadi (“homestead”). By surface analysis, home + stead. Cognate with Old Frisian hāmstede, hēmstede (“homestead”), Dutch heemstede (“homestead”), German Heimstatt, Heimstätte (“homestead”), Swedish hemstad (“homestead”), Old Icelandic heimstǫð (“homestead”).…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0