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START / NODE 135Present-Day English14th century–today
host
A person who receives guests, borrowed through Anglo-French from Latin hospes, a word that could name either side of a reciprocal hospitality relationship.
“Host and guest were not originally fixed opposites. The Latin and reconstructed families encode roles that could reverse when hospitality was returned.”OPEN COMPLETE WORD DOSSIER ↗
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00Present-Day English · attestedhost
one who receives or entertains guests; later many extended roles
01
PARENT ROUTES1 REVIEWED RELATIONSHIP
Present-Day Englishhost
one who receives or entertains guests; later many extended roles
↑GO DEEPER
Middle English · Middle Englishost / hosthost or guest; a person in a hospitality relationship
- SOUND CHANGE
- Middle English ost / host continued into modern host with loss of the unstressed variant and stabilization of initial h.
- SEMANTIC CHANGE
- The reversible host-or-guest role narrowed in English toward the person receiving others, then expanded into event, media, biological, and computing roles.
- SCHOLAR
- Merriam-Webster editors
- CONFIDENCE
- established
- CHRONOLOGY
- Hospitality sense recorded from the 14th century.
THE ASTERISK IS A PROMISE
RECONSTRUCTION IS
NOT INSCRIPTION.
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