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host

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English has three words spelled host: one who receives guests, from Latin hospes; a multitude or army, from Latin hostis; and the consecrated bread, from Latin hostia.[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /həʊst/, US /hoʊst/[4]

host1 one who receives guests

Etymology

The receiver of guests is inherited from Middle English oste, later hoste,[1][3] borrowed from Old French oste (“guest, host, landlord”),[5][1] from Latin hospitem, accusative of hospes (“guest, stranger; host”),[5][1] which appears to be from Proto-Indo-European *ghos-pot- (“guest-master”),[5] formed from *ghos-ti- (“stranger, guest, host”) and *poti- (“powerful; lord”).[5][1] Etymonline compares Old Church Slavonic gospodĭ “lord, master”.[5][1] The notion is of someone with whom one has mutual duties of hospitality.[5] It is related to guest, hospital and hotel.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A man who lodges guests for payment, an innkeeper: about 1290 in the OED.[6] Barnhart dates the word about 1250, with the surname Host in 1254.[1]

Semantic evolution

A man who entertains guests in his house is from 1303.[6] Reckon without one's host, “to calculate without consulting the person concerned”, is from about 1489.[6] The biological sense, an animal or plant on which a parasite lives, is from 1857.[5] The verb is from probably 1421;[1] it was used in Shakespeare's time, fell out of use, and was revived in the 20th century, especially of television programmes and events.[7] Hostess is from about 1300.[1]

Timeline

  • c. 1290 – an innkeeper.[6]
  • c. 1300 – hostess.[1]
  • 1303 – one who entertains guests.[6]
  • 1421 – verb.[1]
  • c. 1489 – reckon without one's host.[6]
  • 1857 – the host of a parasite.[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A person who receives or entertains guests.
  2. A person who keeps an inn or hotel.
  3. A person, place or organization that provides facilities for an event.
  4. The presenter of a radio or television programme.
  5. (biology) An organism on which a parasite lives.
  6. (computing) A computer that provides services to others in a network.

Verb

  1. To act as host to or at.
  2. To present a television or radio programme.

Word family

  • hostess

host2 multitude

Etymology

The multitude is inherited from Middle English host, also ost and oost,[3][1] borrowed from Old French ost (“army”),[5][1] from Medieval Latin hostis (“army, warlike expedition”),[5][1][2] from Latin hostis (“stranger, enemy”),[5][1] from Proto-Indo-European *ghos-ti- (“stranger, guest, host”).[5] The Latin h- was lost in Old French, then restored in the spelling and, in modern English, in the pronunciation.[5] It is related to hostile and to host1.[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

An army, an armed multitude: the mid-13th century in Etymonline,[5] 1265 in Barnhart,[1] and about 1290 in the OED.[6]

Semantic evolution

It replaced Old English here “army”, and has in turn been largely replaced by army.[5][2] A great company or large number in general is from about 1440 in the OED[6] and the 1610s in Etymonline, and Barnhart cites Purchas (1613).[5][1] The host of heaven, the sun, moon and stars or the angels, is from 1382,[6] and Lord of Hosts translates the Hebrew title of God that occurs more than 260 times in the Bible.[5][6]

Timeline

  • 1265 – an army.[1]
  • 1382 – Lord of Hosts; the host of heaven.[6]
  • c. 1440 – a large number.[6]
  • 1613 – a multitude, generally.[1]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A great number; a multitude: a host of problems.
  2. (archaic) An army.
  3. The angels, or the sun, moon and stars: the heavenly host.

host3 Eucharistic bread

Etymology

The consecrated bread is inherited from Middle English oste, later hoste,[1][3] borrowed from Old French oiste,[2][3] or borrowed directly from Latin hostia (“sacrifice, sacrificial victim”),[1][5] of uncertain origin;[1] Etymonline thinks it probably related in the end to host1 in its root sense “stranger, enemy”.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The consecrated bread of the Eucharist: about 1303, in Mannyng's Handlyng Synne.[1] Etymonline dates it about 1300.[5]

Semantic evolution

Church Latin applied hostia to Christ as a sacrifice, and Medieval Latin to the consecrated bread.[5] In English the sense “sacrificial victim” is from the 14th century and is obsolete.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 1303 – the consecrated wafer.[1]
  • c. 1340 – the spelling hoste.[1]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The bread or wafer consecrated in the Eucharist.

Usage notes

The American Heritage Dictionary notes that the revived verb host is used mainly of institutional gatherings and broadcasts, where the host has not personally invited the guests, and that it would sound odd of a dinner party at one's own house.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  2. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin