huésped

Forms

huésped m (plural huéspedes, feminine huésped or huéspeda, feminine plural huéspedes or huéspedas)^[1] The feminine huéspeda is recorded in 1057, before the masculine; the feminine is now either la huésped or la huéspeda.^[2][1] Old Spanish texts have huespet, uespet, guesped and ospe.^[3] Popular speech has huéspede, and güésped is recorded in Buenos Aires in 1617.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish huésped, inherited from Latin hospes (“host; guest”).^[2][6][1] The Latin word meant both the host who receives a stranger and the guest who is received, and Spanish inherited both senses.^[2][7] Coromines explains that the Latin word first meant the host, “the master of a guest”, and took the sense “guest” as well through the reciprocity of ancient hospitality.^[8]

It is itself a compound of hostis (“stranger; later enemy”) and the root of potis (“able; master”).^[9][1] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Italic *hostipotis and Proto-Indo-European *gʰóstipotis, and compares Proto-Slavic *gospodь (“lord, master”).^[1]

The same Latin word is Portuguese hóspede, Catalan hoste, French hôte and Italian ospite.^[10][4] Spanish took hostería in 1517 from Italian osteria, and hotel in 1855 from French hôtel, both from relatives of the same Latin word.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The masculine is first recorded in the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140), the feminine huéspeda in 1057.^[2][3] Alfonso X's prose uses it for a person lodged in another's house and for the host who lodges him: in the Estoria de España un su huesped presentol ala mesa olio “one of his hosts set oil before him at table”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Both senses lived on: Salvá in 1846 gives “someone lodged in another's house”, “innkeeper” and, as old, “someone who lodges another”, with proverbs such as Huésped con sol ha honor, said of the traveller who reaches the inn early and gets the best of it, and Huéspeda hermosa, mal para la bolsa.^[12] The Academy's dictionary of 1869 has the same senses and proverbs.^[13] Today the DLE marks “innkeeper” and “host” as little used.^[6]

The biological sense, a plant or animal that harbours a parasite, is in the Academy's dictionary of 2001;^[14] the DLE now defines it as a living being that gives food or shelter to another in commensalism or parasitism.^[6] The DTME notes that the word is often used in apposition, as in célula huésped, under English influence.^[15] The first record from the Americas is from Santa Marta in 1535.^[5]

Timeline

• 1057 – the feminine huéspeda.^[2]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has huésped; the verb hospedar is recorded at the same date.^[2]
• 1270–1284 – the Estoria de España uses it for a host.^[11]
• 1490 – hospedaje is first recorded.^[2]
• 1517 – hostería is borrowed from Italian.^[2]
• 1535 – the first record from the Americas, in Santa Marta.^[5]
• 1846 – Salvá records the proverbs Huésped con sol ha honor and Huéspeda hermosa, mal para la bolsa.^[12]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology, from Latin hospes.^[16]
• 2001 – the Academy's dictionary has the biological sense “host of a parasite”.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A guest, a person staying in someone else's house: Este fin de semana tenemos dos huéspedes en casa.^[6][1]
2. A guest at a hotel or other lodging; a lodger.^[6][1]
3. (rare) An innkeeper.^[6]
4. (rare) A host, a person who lodges another in his or her house.^[6][17]
5. (biology) A host: a living being that gives food or shelter to another in commensalism or parasitism.^[6][1]

Word family

• hospedar
• hospedaje
• hospedería
• hospedero

Related words

• hospital
• hospitalario
• hospitalidad
• hostería
• hotel
• hospicio
• inhóspito
• hueste
• Latin hospes

Usage notes

Casa de huéspedes is a boarding house.^[17][1] The phrase no contar con la huéspeda means not to foresee the snags that may upset a plan.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. huésped
3. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. huésped
4. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. hospes
5. ^ a b c 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. güésped
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. huésped
7. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. huésped
8. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 4, 822
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4197
11. ^ 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. huésped
12. ^ a b Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 597
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 421
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. huésped
15. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. huésped
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 539
17. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. huésped