SOURCE 01supportshistorical dictionary
Guest — Word History
Describes the reconstruction as limited to three western branches.
dialectal Indo-European *ghost-i-- AUTHOR / EDITOR
- Merriam-Webster Editors
- YEAR
- 2026
- PUBLISHER
- Merriam-Webster
PERMANENT DISPUTE RECORD
ALL DISPUTES ↗CLAIM / COUNTERCLAIM / LIMITRECORD 48
DISPUTE
RECORD.
One scholarly question. Every attached source. The present editorial state, without pretending the last word has been written.
openprobable
How broadly distributed is *ghos-ti-?
The reconstruction is supported by Germanic, Italic, and Slavic evidence but is limited to a western set of Indo-European branches.
WORD UNDER REVIEWDISPUTE 48
guest
/ɡɛst/ · noun
A person receiving hospitality, inherited through Old English from the Germanic branch of reconstructed *ghos-ti-.
01
DIRECT CLAIM EVIDENCE
3 SOURCES WITH A STANCE
A citation is not a vote. Each record says whether the work supports, challenges, contradicts, or contextualizes the position—and identifies the exact locus used.
SOURCE 02contextscholarly lexicon
Indo-European Lexicon: ghosti-s
Supplies an independent comparative lexicon record.
Pokorny ghosti-s- AUTHOR / EDITOR
- University of Texas Linguistics Research Center
- YEAR
- 2026
- PUBLISHER
- University of Texas at Austin
SOURCE 03contextscholarly reference
Indo-European Root ghos-ti-
Publishes the comparative root family.
ghos-ti- root- AUTHOR / EDITOR
- Calvert Watkins and American Heritage Dictionary Editors
- YEAR
- 2022
- PUBLISHER
- HarperCollins
02 / EDITORIAL STATE
THE QUESTION REMAINS OPEN.
- CONFIDENCE
- probable
- STATUS
- open
- LEGACY SOURCE SUMMARY
- Merriam-Webster calls it an etymon limited to three western branches; American Heritage and the University of Texas publish the reconstruction.
The reviewed evidence does not yet warrant collapsing the competing or incomplete analyses into one secure answer.