1894 Brewer’s / U / Unhouselled
Without having had the Eucharist in the hour of death. To housel is to administer the “sacrament” to the sick in danger of death. Housel is the Saxon husel (the Eucharist). Lye derives it from the Gothic hunsa (a victim).
· ·
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.