hôte

Forms

hôte m (plural hôtes, feminine hôte or hôtesse)^[1] Old French oste, from about 1195 also hoste with an etymological ⟨h⟩;^[2][3] hôte from the 17th century.^[2][3] The feminine is hôtesse (Old French ostesce, about 1150) for a hostess, but hôte for a woman who is a guest.^[4][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French oste, inherited from Latin hospitem (“one who gives or receives hospitality”), the accusative of the Latin noun.^[4][2][5][6] The Latin word was formed on hostis and an element ⟨pet-⟩ or ⟨pot-⟩ which Benveniste took to mean “master”, as in potis;^[2] the compound took over the old sense of the simple word, which had come to mean “stranger, enemy”.^[2] Wiktionary reconstructs a compound Proto-Italic *hostipotis, possibly matching Proto-Indo-European *gʰóstipotis made of *gʰóstis and *pótis.^[1]

Cognate with Italian ospite, Spanish huésped, Portuguese hóspede, Catalan hoste and Romanian oaspete.^[2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as oste in Benedeit's Voyage de saint Brendan (early 12th century), meaning the one who gives hospitality.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

From about 1150 the word also meant an innkeeper, especially in the feminine ostesse; this sense, still usual in the 18th and early 19th centuries, has merged into the general one.^[4][2] The phrase table d'hôte (1606), a common table with set-price meals, is from this use and survives in Quebec French for a fixed-price menu;^[2][7] compter sans son hôte “to leave out the person most concerned” is also from 1606.^[2][7] In medieval law an hoste (about 1180) was a free tenant holding land for a rent, after Medieval Latin hospes.^[4][2]

From the 12th century (about 1165) hôte also names the person received, the guest, now mostly in private invitations.^[4][2] Poetry from 1646 called creatures hôtes of a place, as in les hôtes de l'air “the birds”.^[2][3] In biology (1897) it names an organism that harbours a parasite.^[2]

Hôtesse was taken up again about 1950 in hôtesse de l'air, a calque of American English air hostess, and then for a woman who receives visitors or customers.^[2][5]

Timeline

• early 12th century – Oste “one who gives hospitality” in Benedeit's Saint Brendan.^[4]
• c. 1150 – Wace uses oste for an innkeeper and ostesce for a woman keeping an inn.^[4]
• c. 1165 – First use for the guest.^[4]
• c. 1180 – Legal sense “free tenant” in the Proverbes au vilain.^[4]
• c. 1195 – The spelling hoste appears.^[2][8]
• 1606 – Table d'hôte and compter sans son hôte are recorded.^[2]
• 1646 – Hôte is used poetically of creatures living in a place.^[2][3]
• 1897 – Biological sense “host of a parasite”.^[2]
• c. 1950 – Hôtesse de l'air is calqued on air hostess.^[2][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A host: a person who receives someone in their home or entertains them.^[7][4]
2. (dated) An innkeeper;^[7] table d'hôte, a shared table with set-price meals at an inn or boarding house.^[7]
3. A guest, a person who is received and given hospitality (feminine also hôte): un hôte de marque;^[7][1] chambre d'hôte, a room let by a private householder.^[7][1]
4. (literary) A creature living in a place: les hôtes des bois.^[2][3]
5. (biology) An organism that harbours a parasite.^[7][2]
6. (computing) A host computer.^[7]

Word family

• hôtesse
• otage
• table d'hôte

Related words

• hôtel
• hôpital
• hospitalité
• hospice
• Latin hospes

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
5. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 4, 491a
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert