house, noun

Origin:
EnglishShow more Special senses of general English house the building in which a legislative or deliberative assembly meets, (transferred) this assembly.
historical
1. House of Assembly:
a. From 1852 to 1910, the lower house of the parliament of the Cape Colony; Volksraad sense 1 b.
1852 Ordinance 29 in G.W. Eybers Sel. Constit. Doc. (1918) 45There should be within the settlement of the Cape of Good Hope a Parliament, to consist of the Governor, a Legislative Council, and House of Assembly.
1872 J.L. Babe S. Afr. Diamond Fields 75The Parliament consists of two representative bodies called the Legislative Council and the House of Assembly.
1897 P.A. Molteno Sel. from Correspondence (1981) 51I have two brothers in the Cape House of Assembly.
1909 H.E.S. Fremantle New Nation 38A representative Select Committee of the Cape House of Assembly unanimously agreed to insert clauses in an Education Bill providing that..every English or Dutch child should learn both languages.
b. From 1910 to 1961, the lower house of the parliament of the Union of South Africa; from 1961 to 1984, the lower house of the parliament of the Republic of South Africa.
1909 S. Afr. Act in G.W. Eybers Sel. Constit. Doc. (1918) 537There shall be a provisional council in each province consisting of the same number of members as are elected in the province for the House of Assembly.
1926 M. Nathan S. Afr. from Within 241Legislation vests in the Parliament of the Union. This consists of two Houses: the Senate, and the House of Assembly...The House of Assembly consists of a variable number of members.
1939 Star 4 Sept. 11 (caption)House of Assembly. Monday.
1972 W.P.L. Van Zyl in Std Encycl. of Sn Afr. V. 613House of Assembly, The lower house of the South African Parliament, now composed of directly elected White representatives of the White people of the four provinces of the Republic and of South-West Africa.
c1988 S. Afr. 1987–8: Off. Yrbk (Bureau for Info.) 121The bicameral legislature comprised a House of Assembly whose members..were elected by simple majority..and a senate.
c. In the tricameral parliamentary system (1984–1994): the chamber consisting of, and representing, white people. Also attributive.
1983 Act 110 in Govt Gaz. Vol.219 No.8914, 26The House of Assembly shall consist of- (a) 166 members, each of whom shall be directly elected by the persons entitled to vote.
1987 L. Lightfoot in E. Prov. Herald 1 May 2The SABC is putting on the largest outside broadcast it has ever undertaken to cover the results of the House of Assembly election on May 6.
c1988 S. Afr. 1987–8: Off. Yrbk (Bureau for Info.) 107The House of Assembly consists of 178 members of whom 166 are elected by simple majority.., while four are nominated by the State President..and eight are elected on the basis of proportional representation of the various political parties by the 166 directly elected members once they meet in Parliament.
1989 [see sense 3].
2. House of Delegates: In the tricameral parliamentary system (1984–1994), the chamber consisting of, and representing, South Africans of Indian descent; HoD.
1983 Act 110 in Govt Gaz. Vol.219 No.8914, 28The House of Delegates shall consist of- (a) 40 members.
1984 Rhodeo (Rhodes Univ.) Oct.The House of Delegates has even less credibility. Of more than 500 000 Indians elegible to vote, only 83000 did so.
1985 Afr. Review 296Parliament will be made up of three chambers, a house of assembly (178 members) for whites, a house of representatives (85 members) for ‘coloured’ (mixed race) people, and a house of delegates (45 members) for Indians.
1991 A. Maimane in Weekly Mail 15 Feb. 17I asked the only other person in the lift if he was a member of the House of Delegates. He might look like one of them, he replied, but he wasn’t an Indian: he, too, was coloured.
3. House of Representatives: In the tricameral parliamentary system (1984–1994), the chamber consisting of, and representing, those officially classified as coloured persons.
1983 Act 110 in Govt Gaz. Vol.219 No.8914, 28The House of Representatives shall consist of- (a) 80 members each of whom shall be directly elected.
1984 Evening Post 22 Aug. 1Voting in the elections for the House of Representatives got off to a generally slow start around South Africa today.
1988 B. Streek in Cape Times 20 Jan. 1President P.W. Botha has refused to dismiss Mr Carter Ebrahim as the Minister of Education and Culture in the House of Representatives.
1989 Reader’s Digest Illust. Hist. of S. Afr. 467Under the 1983 Constitution Act the South African Parliament consists of three legislative houses: the House of Assembly for Whites; the House of Representatives for Coloured people; and the House of Delegates for Asians.
From 1852 to 1910, the lower house of the parliament of the Cape Colony; Volksraad sense 1 b.
From 1910 to 1961, the lower house of the parliament of the Union of South Africa; from 1961 to 1984, the lower house of the parliament of the Republic of South Africa.
In the tricameral parliamentary system (1984–1994): the chamber consisting of, and representing, white people. Also attributive.
House of Delegates:In the tricameral parliamentary system (1984–1994), the chamber consisting of, and representing, South Africans of Indian descent; HoD.
House of Representatives:In the tricameral parliamentary system (1984–1994), the chamber consisting of, and representing, those officially classified as coloured persons.
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18521991