inhospitus

Forms

inhospitus (feminine inhospita, neuter inhospitum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in-² (“not”) + hospita (“hospitable, foreign”) in the OLD.^[2] The TLL explains it as ⟨in⟩ and hospita with a declension made up as if from a masculine ⟨hospitus⟩,^[3] and Wiktionary as ⟨in⟩ and the stem ⟨hospit-⟩ of hospes (“host”).^[1] The noun hospes goes back to Proto-Italic *χostipot-, a compound of hostis and the root of potis.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Virgil, Horace and Ovid on, mainly in poetry.^[3] In the Aeneid Virgil calls the Syrtis inhospitable.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

It means “not offering a welcome to strangers”, of a home or a people, and of places that give no shelter or food: Virgil's rocks crossed at sea and Horace's “desert and inhospitable wastes”.^[2][5] Its forms are mainly the feminine singular and neuter plural inhospita, the only one used in hexameters;^[2][3] Silius Italicus uses the neuter plural as a noun for inhospitable regions, and calls a land “inhospitable to Bacchus” where no vine grows.^[5][7] Solinus applies it to a hostile people.^[7]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil calls the Syrtis and rocky coasts inhospitable.^[2][5][8]
• 65–8 BC – Horace speaks of desert and inhospitable wastes.^[5][8]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of a house that does not welcome strangers.^[5][8]
• 25–101 AD – Silius Italicus uses the neuter plural as a noun, “inhospitable regions”.^[5][8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Not welcoming to strangers, inhospitable.^[2][5]
2. Of places: giving no shelter or food, barren, desolate.^[2]
3. (neuter plural as a noun) Inhospitable regions.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 c 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 f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de