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America at home

noun

Etymology

Originally, and literally, the state of enjoying the comfortable life associated with emigrating to America while remaining "at home" in Ireland (thus having the best of both worlds). E.g.: * Conyngham Crawford Taylor (1887), The Queen's jubilee and Toronto "called back" from 1887 to 1847, page 387: “As landlords in Canada expect their tenants to pay their rent when due, Mr. Kilbride would not improve his position by emigrating to this country, as, to use a common Irish expression, he appears to have a "very good America at home."” * 1971, Thomas P. Flanagan, Seanad Éireann debates 19 May 1971 Vol.70 no.4 p.5 c.292: *: She asked me if I was the man who was in charge of the turf production and I said I was. She began to praise me and bless me because she said they had England and America at home. In other words, the earnings from turf production on a family basis were equivalent to what they would have got in England and America if the family had emigrated.

  1. derived from expression

Definitions

  1. The height of luxury, comfort, or modernity.

    • "Tis America at home," Hickey said, putting turf on the smoking fire.
    • "Tis America at home," James said as he nodded to the waitress for more coffees.
    • Lemonade was poured into glasses and the meal was toasted. 'This is America at home,' Moran boasted. Bowls of trifle followed. 'We'll burst!' He and everybody were happy.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for America at home. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA