An Americanism dating back to 1870–75; from Navajo hooghan “hogan, home”
A hogan is a Navajo dwelling made of bark, logs, and earth. These traditional structures were once commonly used as homes, though newly built hogans are more often used for ceremonial purposes. Many Navajo families still live in older hogans, and, regardless of what type of structure the family lives in, it's considered important to have a family hogan for ceremonies. The very oldest of these structures were cone-shaped and insulated with packed mud that kept them cool in the summer and warm in the winter. The door commonly faced east, for easy viewing of the sunrise, which symbolized good fortune. The Navajo root is hoghan, "dwelling."
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Born in 1932 in a traditional Navajo hogan without running water or electricity, Laughter was 16 when Native Americans got the right to vote in Arizona.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 29, 2021
I live alone in a hogan, a traditional octagonal log house, in Chi Chil Tah, meaning “Where the Oaks Grow,” after the Gambel oaks indigenous to this region.
From Scientific American ● Jul. 8, 2020
Home was a hogan, a rounded structure made of logs plastered with adobe.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2014
On this date in 1960, a Navajo forked pole hogan was tree ring dated to 1387, the earliest date on record.
From Washington Times ● Jul. 9, 2014
Its deep voice caused the entire stone hogan to vibrate.
From "Healer of the Water Monster" by Brian Young
The company is also rebuilding how work gets done, as Kathleen Hogan, Microsoft’s chief strategy and transformation officer, told the WSJ Leadership Institute’s Steven Rosenbush in a recent interview.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026
The surf was relatively calm, Hogan remarked, and the water pouring down the street and into the storm drains was far from a deluge.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 27, 2026
Elaine Hogan, executive director of the Great Redwood Trail Agency, said it has reached out to tribes via letters, phone calls and emails.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 19, 2026
“That is the shift everybody just has to implement,” Hogan said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026
Whenever World Wrestling Federation with Hulk Hogan came on, or The A-Team with Mr. T, people would cram into his living room and gather around his house, trying to watch through his window.
From "I Will Always Write Back" by Caitlin Alifirenka and Martin Ganda
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
