noun Street Slang

shotgun house

· noun · nola

Long narrow NOLA house with rooms in a straight line front to back.

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Definitions

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A one-room-wide house where every room opens directly into the next with no hallway, front door to back door in a straight shot. The folk etymology: you could fire a shotgun through the front door and the pellets would sail clean out the back. Defines whole neighbourhoods of New Orleans — the Bywater, Marigny, Tremé, Central City.

“He grew up in a double shotgun on Burgundy with his auntie on the other side.”
by community
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shotgun house In A Sentence

He grew up in a double shotgun on Burgundy with his auntie on the other side.

Origin & Usage

Likely brought to New Orleans via free Haitian immigrants after the 1791 revolution; the form echoes West African and Caribbean housing styles. Dominant in NOLA from the 1860s through the 1920s.

Variants shotgun
Tags #nola#architecture#southern#hip-hop#urban-lingo

People Also Ask

What is a shotgun house?

A shotgun house is a long, narrow New Orleans-style house with rooms in a straight line front to back.

Where does the name shotgun house come from?

The common explanation is that the rooms line up so directly you could fire a shotgun through the front door and out the back without hitting a wall.

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