hospedar

Forms

hospedar (first-person singular present hospedo, first-person singular preterite hospedé, past participle hospedado)^[1] Old Spanish wrote it with or without ⟨h⟩: ospedado in the Cantar de mio Cid and in Berceo, hospedassen in Alfonso X's laws.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin hospitāre (“to lodge, entertain”), the active form beside hospitārī, which the Academy gives as the source.^[1][5][6] The Latin verb is formed on hospes (“host; guest”), the source of huésped, and Corominas lists the verb among the derivatives of that noun.^[1][7]

The same verb is Portuguese hospedar and Romanian ospăta, and Asturian gospear, agospiar and agospedar “to give lodging”.^[6][8][9] The Latin noun meant both the host and the guest; it goes back to Proto-Italic *hostipotis, a compound of the words that became hostis and potis, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰóstipotis.^[1][10] The learned hospital, hospitalidad and hospicio come from the same Latin family.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy) has the participle as a noun, “lodging, hospitality”, when the abbot Don Sancho welcomes the Cid: prendet de mí ospedado “take lodging from me”.^[2][7] Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos (c. 1236) uses the verb itself of pilgrims who were bien ospedados “well lodged” at the monastery.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From the start the verb meant to receive travellers and give them lodging, and the reflexive hospedarse “to stay, lodge” followed.^[2][5] Covarrubias in 1611 counted lodging pilgrims among the works of charity, and thought, wrongly, that huésped was formed from hospedar.^[11] Autoridades in 1734 added the extended sense “to find lodging for travellers” and a university sense: a collegian whose term had ended and who stayed on at his own cost was said to hospedar.^[12][12] The Academy kept this intransitive sense until the DLE marked it obsolete.^[5][13] Today hospedar is used of guests in a private house and of paying guests in a hotel or boarding house.^[14][5]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has ospedado “lodging”.^[2][7]
• c. 1236 – Berceo writes of pilgrims who were bien ospedados.^[2]
• 1256–1300 – Alfonso X's laws speak of those who hospedassen travellers.^[3]
• 1533 – first record in the Americas, at Puebla.^[15]
• 1611 – Covarrubias explains the verb as receiving strangers and pilgrims.^[11]
• 1734 – Autoridades gives the collegians' sense.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology hospitari.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To host or lodge someone, to give guests a place to stay: Hospedamos a mis primos durante la feria.^[5][1]
2. (reflexive) To stay as a guest in a house, hotel or pensión: Nos hospedamos en un albergue junto al río.^[5][14][1]
3. (intransitive, obsolete) Of a college student, to move to the hospedería when his term of residence was over.^[5][12]

Word family

• hospedaje
• hospedería
• hospedero
• hospedador

Related words

• hospital
• hospitalario
• hospitalidad
• huésped
• hospicio
• hostería
• Latin hospes

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. hospedar
3. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. hospedar
4. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. hospedar
5. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. hospedar
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4199
7. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. huésped
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 3297
9. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. agospiar
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 997
12. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 182
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 577
14. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. hospedar
15. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. güespedar