hosticus

Forms

hosticus (feminine hostica, neuter hosticum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin hostis (“stranger; enemy”) + -icus, formed like cīvicus.^[2][1][3] De Vaan derives hostis from Proto-Italic *χosti- and Proto-Indo-European *gʰosti- (“stranger, guest”); the further origin of that word is disputed.^[4]

Cognate with Old High German gast (“guest”) and Old Norse gestr (“guest”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler and de Vaan record it first in Plautus.^[5][4] In the Captivi it is “of the enemy”: the shared slavery that came hostica manu, by an enemy hand.^[2][6] In the Miles gloriosus a speaker says hosticum hoc mihi domicilium est, Athenis domus est, “this is a foreign dwelling to me, my home is at Athens”, but there the word is a conjecture.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

It means of or belonging to the enemy: Accius has corpus hosticum, bodies of slain enemies, Horace the enemy's walls and sword, Ovid enemy land and flames.^[6][7] Lewis & Short note that it is mostly poetic and post-Augustan, and absent from Cicero and Caesar.^[6] The neuter hosticum is enemy territory, in Livy and Pliny the Younger.^[6][7] The commentator Porphyrion remarks that the ancients said civica and hostica where later Latin said civilia and hostilia.^[3]

In Medieval Latin from Britain it also means warlike, and in law texts it stands where the Old English versions have words for the army and military service.^[8] Conte gives it as the source of Italian ostico.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus has hostica manus, an enemy hand.^[2][5]
• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius uses corpus hosticum of slain enemies.^[7][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of the enemy's walls.^[6][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses the neuter hosticum for enemy territory.^[6][7][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Situated abroad, foreign, strange.^[2][6]
2. Of or belonging to the enemy, hostile.^[2][6][9]
3. (Medieval Latin) Warlike.^[8]
4. (neuter as noun) Enemy territory.^[6][7]
5. (Medieval Latin, as noun) An enemy army; an army, household troops; military service.^[8]

Word family

• hosticum

Related words

• hostis
• hostīlis
• Italian ostico

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
9. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson