Etymologically
Log in

hosticus

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 14:53. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

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

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