GRAPH-WIDE SEARCH
MEASURE THE GRAPH ↗NOT JUST A DICTIONARY LOOKUP
6 EVIDENCE COLLECTIONSSEARCH
THE GRAPH.
Find a modern word—or search sideways through reconstructed roots, historical forms, meanings, languages, scholars, sources, claims, disputes, and witnesses.
WIKTIONARY VIA KAIKKI / WIKTEXTRACT
Imported dictionary evidence
These are source reports, not reviewed *SET-U ancestry. A list of templates or numbered etymologies is not an ancestor chain. Scholarly disagreements remain in the original source text.
35,981 English word records · 45,491 etymology sections in this online subset
PARTIAL ENGLISH COVERAGE · FULL CORPUS REMAINS LOCALNo exact match for “hostis” in this partial English subset. That does not mean the full research corpus—or linguistic scholarship—has no record. Check the original dictionary entry ↗
INDEPENDENT SOURCE LIBRARY
More sources for this spelling
These are spelling matches, not a claim of identical senses or agreement. Historical accounts retain their own editions and limits; none is automatically promoted into reviewed ancestry.
Lewis’s Elementary Latin Dictionary
1890 American Book Company edition; pinned Perseus XML digitization013
MODERN ENTRY POINTS
WORD DOSSIERS
nounexact headword
hostis
The Latin word for an outsider or public enemy, preserving the historical semantic turn from foreign stranger to armed opponent.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗adjectiveexact historical form
hostile
Enemy-like or antagonistic, borrowed through French and Latin from hostīlis, built on Latin hostis “stranger; enemy.”
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗nouncontrarian claim
guest
A person receiving hospitality, inherited through Old English from the Germanic branch of reconstructed *ghos-ti-.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗021
ATTESTED / RECONSTRUCTED / BOUNDARY
HISTORICAL FORMS
038
WHERE INTERPRETATION IS TESTED
CLAIMS & DISPUTES
SCHOLARLY DISPUTES / 5
resolvedestablishedexact word
Did Latin hostis always mean enemy?
No. Roman sources remembered an older foreigner or stranger sense before usage restricted the word toward a public or armed enemy.
openspeculativeposition text
Can one coinage event be named for enemy becoming the Devil?
No unique event is established. OED explains a recurring ultimate-enemy use shaped by Latin hostis and the adversary meaning behind satan, but does not identify one inventor or first metaphorical moment.
resolvedestablishedposition text
Why could enemy become the Devil?
OED explains the Devil as the original or ultimate enemy, early translating Latin hostis and ultimately reflecting the literal adversary sense of Hebrew satan. This is a semantic and translation history, not proof of one coinage event.
resolvedestablishedposition text
Was guest borrowed from Latin hostis?
No. English guest continues the Germanic branch; Latin hostis is a parallel cognate branch that meets it at *ghos-ti-.
resolvedprobableposition text
How did a reciprocal stranger become an enemy?
Early Latin hostis referred to a foreigner or legally recognized outsider before later Roman usage restricted it to a hostile outsider or enemy.
CONTRARIAN TRUTHS / 3
RANK 163GRADE Aexact ranked word
The enemy was once the stranger.
Older Latin hostis named a foreigner or legally recognized outsider. Roman authors themselves explain how usage narrowed toward the armed or public enemy.
RANK 1GRADE Aranked reveal
A stranger became both guest and enemy.
The reciprocal outsider behind guest and host also became Latin hostis, “enemy.”
RANK 90GRADE Aranked reveal
Guest and hostile share a stranger.
Germanic guest and Latin hostis remain separate branches until reconstructed *ghos-ti-. One branch preserved the visitor; the Latin branch developed the outsider and enemy family.
041
BOOKS / DICTIONARIES / ARTICLES / DATABASES
SOURCES
051
FIRST USES & HISTORICAL OBJECTS
ATTESTATION WITNESSES
06
SEARCH IS DISCOVERY, NOT PROOF
EVERY RESULT OPENS A PERMANENT EVIDENCE RECORD.
Matching text only locates a record. It does not raise confidence, settle a dispute, establish cognacy, or turn a source report into direct inspection. Follow the result into its citations and editorial limits.