Back and catching up!

Hi all! You may have noticed the absence of my babbling
during the last three days... My monitor sort of blew up
on Monday and we had to take to monitor doctor :)

Well, catching up now:

Nik Taylor wrote:
>According to my handy Dictionary of Word Origins, OF _hoste_ came from
>Latin _hospes_ (gen. _hospitis_), which had the same meaning, is
>believed to be derived from _hostis_ (source of _host_ in the sense of
>large army), which comes from PIE *ghostis, stranger.  *Ghostis is also
>the source of Germanic *gastiz, source of English _guest_, and Greek
>_xe'nos_.  I can see how stranger could acquire the meaning of "guest",
>but "host" is a less obvious derivation.
>From _hospes_ Spanish got _hue'sped_ ("host/guest") and the verb
_hospedar(se)_. The normal form _hospedar_ means "to host", while the
pseudorreflexive _hospedarse_ means "to be hosted (in a place)".

It's certainly how _hospes_ and _hostis_ seem to relate... I've read
an explanation about this. It seems _hostis_ meant "stranger, alien one"
in the first place. Then the meaning shifted (by a xenophobic tendency,
I guess) towards "enemy at war". I guess that's the origin of "hostile",
which must have entered English from a different language (I meant, not
by the normal PIE > Germanic > English derivation).

Then, if _hostis_ means "enemy", then many of them form a host
(Spanish _hueste_).

>From _hospitis_ comes Spanish _hospital_ (French _ho^pital_). I believe
a "hospital" used to be more like a rest house, sort of a lodge. In fact,
in Spanish we also have _hosteri'a_ and _hostal_ with this meaning (and
of course, _hotel_, which must be French influence).


--Pablo Flores