hoste

Forms

hoste f (plural hostes)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese mostly wrote oste.^[2] The spelling hoste, with the Latin ⟨h⟩, is also recorded in the 13th century.^[3][4][2] Wiktionary describes the ⟨h⟩ as restored after the Latin word.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin hostis (“stranger; enemy”), written Old Galician-Portuguese oste in the oldest texts.^[3][4][2][1] Nascentes alone calls it a learned word.^[5] The sense “army” grew out of the collective use of the Latin word for the enemy in war: in Vulgar Latin it came to mean “the enemy army” and then any army, a use frequent from the early 6th century, and the noun became feminine in most of the Romance languages.^[6] Medieval Latin used it for an army and for a military expedition.^[7]

The same Latin word is Romanian oaste, Italian oste, Old French ost, Old Occitan ost and Spanish hueste,^[8] and Galician hoste.^[9]

The Latin noun first meant “stranger, foreigner”, and only later “enemy”.^[10][1] It goes back to Proto-Italic *hostis and Proto-Indo-European *gʰóstis (“stranger, guest”), the source also of Proto-Germanic *gastiz (whence guest) and Proto-Slavic *gostь.^[1][11] De Vaan doubts a derivation from a root “to eat”, and reports Heidermanns's analysis as “standing apart”, which he finds sound in meaning and form but unusual in its first member.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Cantigas de Santa Maria oste is an army or the troops of a king: a king comes con oste de pagãos “with a host of pagans” to besiege a town.^[2] The same songs use it for any band, as in de demões oste “a host of demons”.^[2] The satirical cantigas have fazer oste “to go to war”: Ora faz ost' o senhor de Navarra “now the lord of Navarre makes war”.^[2][12]

Semantic evolution

The Crónica Geral uses oste for an army, a camp and a campaign.^[2] Viterbo notes that in the 13th and 14th centuries it also meant a levy of soldiers or any military expedition.^[13] Bluteau (1712–1728) calls it an old word, the former Portuguese name for an army.^[14] Morais (1789) marks it as antiquated, and gives the sense “an enemy who makes war on us” beside “troops”.^[15]

Houaiss and Aurélio keep the masculine sense “enemy” as old; the living word is literary, for an army and, figuratively, for a crowd or band.^[3][16][17] In Rio Grande do Sul it is also used of a crowd of people or of Indians.^[18]

Timeline

• 13th century – oste “army” in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[2][3]
• c. 1400 – hoste in a Flos Sanctorum fragment of Santiago de Compostela (witness 1380–1425).^[19]
• c. 1430 – oste in the Horto do Esposo (witness 1390–1437).^[20]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau calls hoste an old word for an army.^[14]
• 1789 – Morais marks it as antiquated.^[15]
• 1798–1799 – Viterbo records the medieval senses “levy” and “military expedition”.^[13]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira quotes the Ordenações Afonsinas on the marshal's share of the spoils of the hoste.^[21]

Meanings

Noun

1. (archaic, masculine) An enemy, an adversary.^[3][16]
2. An armed force; troops, an army: A hoste do rei atravessou o rio de madrugada.^[3][17][22]
3. (figurative) A large number of people; a band, a crowd: uma hoste de admiradores.^[3][16][23]

Related words

• Latin hostis
• Galician hoste
• Spanish hueste

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. oste
3. ^ a b c d e f g Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. hoste
4. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. hoste
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. hoste
6. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 421
7. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. hostis
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4201
9. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. hoste
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. hostis
11. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ Lopes, Graça Videira; Ferreira, Manuel Pedro et al. (2011–), Cantigas Medievais Galego-Portuguesas [online database], Lisboa: Instituto de Estudos Medievais, FCSH/NOVA, https://cantigas.fcsh.unl.pt, p. s.v. hoste
13. ^ a b Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 37
14. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. hoste
15. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 686
16. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. hoste
17. ^ a b Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. hoste
18. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. hoste
19. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. hoste
20. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. oste
21. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 3, 990
22. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. hoste
23. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 5024