home brew
1
6.5
- noun
- /hoʊm bru/
- Jargon
:
software casero
- He enjoys sharing his home brew applications with friends on the gaming forums.
Examples
-
The community of developers thrives on the innovations found in home brew software for older devices.
-
And like people were building, you know, home brew computers, you know, from kits like the way people build ham radios right now.
-
Many gamers appreciate the creativity of home brew games that add new features to their consoles.
Synonyms
2
6.7
Unofficial software or hardware made by hobbyists for devices like game consoles
How Official
Surface Forms
Morphology
A B1 learner who knows 'home' and 'brew' will likely infer something 'made at home' or homemade, so there is a clear compositional hook. However, the specific technical sense referring to unofficial hobbyist software/games is a domain-specific metaphorical extension and not directly predictable from the constituents, making the expression only partially transparent.
Etymology
Home brew also got a second meaning from the same picture of home and brew: hobby programmers would 'brew' small programs at home, so the phrase now also means 'unofficial software or games made by hobbyists'.