inhospitalis

Forms

inhospitālis (neuter inhospitāle, adverb inhospitāliter); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- + hospitālis (“relating to guests, hospitable”), with the negative prefix.^[2][1][3] The adjective is formed from hospes (“guest, host”), which de Vaan explains as a compound of hostis and the root of potis (“able”), going back to Proto-Italic *χostipot-.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Varro on,^[3][5] who in the Menippean Satires speaks of the inhospitable wastes of the Scythians, inhospitalis Scytharum vastitas.^[6][3]

Semantic evolution

It is used mostly of places that give no shelter: Horace's Caucasus,^[7][8] the Pontus,^[6] the Syrtes,^[6] a shore in Pliny the Younger and a kingdom in Seneca.^[7] Pliny the Elder writes that the Black Sea was once called Axenos from its inhospitalis feritas, its savagery towards strangers,^[7][6] and applies the word to the hardness of a tree that will not take a graft.^[2][7] Tertullian has the adverb inhospitaliter, “inhospitably”.^[7] Medieval British writers use it of unwelcoming lodgings and regions.^[9] It survives as Italian inospitale.^[8]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of the wastes of Scythia.^[3][6][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of the Caucasus.^[7][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of the Black Sea and of a tree that rejects grafting.^[2][7][5]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses the adverb inhospitaliter.^[7][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (of places) Giving no shelter, inhospitable.^[2][7]
2. Violating the law of hospitality.^[6]
3. (of a tree) Not accepting a graft.^[2][7]
4. (Medieval Latin) Unwelcoming.^[9]

Word family

• inhospitālitās

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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 Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b 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