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START / NODE 150LatinLatin antiquity
hostis
The Latin word for an outsider or public enemy, preserving the historical semantic turn from foreign stranger to armed opponent.
“The Latin enemy was once the stranger. Hostis originally named a foreigner or legally recognized outsider before narrowing toward public enemy.”OPEN COMPLETE WORD DOSSIER ↗
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01
PARENT ROUTES1 REVIEWED RELATIONSHIP
Latinhostis
foreigner or stranger in early use; later enemy
↑GO DEEPER
Proto-Indo-European · Proto-Indo-European prehistory*ghos-ti-stranger, guest, host; person with reciprocal duties of hospitality
*
RECONSTRUCTED, NOT DIRECTLY ATTESTED
- SOUND CHANGE
- Latin hostis continues *ghos-ti-; the inherited word first denoted a foreigner or stranger and later narrowed to an enemy.
- SEMANTIC CHANGE
- The reciprocal or legally recognized outsider becomes the hostile outsider and enemy as Roman usage changes.
- SCHOLAR
- Merriam-Webster · American Heritage Indo-European Roots · University of Texas LRC
- CONFIDENCE
- probable — The family connection is strong; the semantic narrowing unfolded historically rather than at one recoverable moment.
6 CITATIONSGuest — Word HistoryLatin hostis semantic history Hostile — Word HistoryLatin hostisORIGINAL ↗ Hostile — Word Historyghos-ti- root pointerORIGINAL ↗ Indo-European Root ghos-ti-Latin hostis from ghos-ti-ORIGINAL ↗ Indo-European Lexicon: ghosti-sLatin hostis reflexORIGINAL ↗ hostis — Lewis and Short Latin DictionaryHeadword introduction; Cicero De officiis 1.12.37 and Varro De lingua Latina 5.3 AUDIT CANONICAL EDGE 133 ↗
Documents the shift from foreigner/stranger to enemy.
ORIGINAL ↗Documents hostis as foreigner or stranger in older usage and its later restriction to armed enemy.
ORIGINAL ↗THE ASTERISK IS A PROMISE
RECONSTRUCTION IS
NOT INSCRIPTION.
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