The place where a fire can be lit for heating is called a home.
The Latin word focus derived, in Hispanic Low Latin, into focaris . This term came to Spanish as home , a concept that has several meanings.
The first meaning mentioned by the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ) in its dictionary refers to the space where fire is generated voluntarily for heating or cooking . A home, in this sense, is a place that allows, using fuel , to light a fire inside a house or in another type of closed environment.
Features of a home
The usual thing is that the home fire is lit with wood . Throughout history, homes have had different uses, many of them simultaneous: flames can be used for heating during the winter season; to cook; for drying and smoking food; or to make certain tools.
The structure of the home usually includes a flue or chimney : a duct that allows smoke to escape to the outside of the house. In addition, there are several instruments linked to the use of a fireplace, such as the poker for distributing the embers and the bellows to fuel combustion .
The idea of home can refer to a home.
A home
The idea of home also refers to a domicile or a dwelling . This use of the notion arose by extension to the first mentioned meaning: as families used to gather around the flames, the family house in general began to be called home. For example: “I'm nervous, my boyfriend invited me to visit his home,” “Hello, welcome to our home,” “A hotel can offer you many comforts, but there is nothing more comfortable than one's home.”
In everyday speech, the term home is used with a subjective connotation that is not so common in home or, much less, housing . For example, we say home to refer to our private space, our sanctuary, that unique place in which we feel protected, accompanied by our loved ones; House , on the other hand, is usually limited simply to the material property that we inhabit, regardless of the feelings that bind us to it.
Home and feelings
There are many expressions and idioms that include the word home, such as "the warmth of home" or "there is nothing like home" , and they all refer precisely to those aspects of one's own home that cannot be seen or touched, but rather that are framed in the plane of feelings, such as love and the feeling of belonging to a group.
Unfortunately, not all human beings are lucky enough to be raised in a healthy home, in a place where they love, respect and protect us, but many people grow up in very hostile environments, where the adults they should trust They are precisely the ones who cause the most damage. This is perhaps the point at which the use of this term becomes inappropriate, since if the aforementioned feelings do not exist, then it is simply a house.
Homeless
On the other hand, there are also the expressions "homeless person" or "being homeless" to refer to all those who do not have a home and who are forced to live on the street or in a shelter. This is the reality of millions of people around the world, and only they know how terrible it can be to endure inclement weather without a roof over their heads, to see the different celebrations of their culture go by without having anyone to share them with, to not have a comfortable bed and shelter or a bathroom to wash.
Home, finally, can be a nursing home or a charitable establishment : “My grandfather lives in a nursing home,” “The singer grew up in a home for minors,” “The government announced the construction of a home for victims of domestic violence.” gender" .