Etymologically
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inhospitalis

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪ.nɔs.pɪˈtaː.lɪs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [i.nos.piˈtaː.lis][1]

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