host

pronunciation

How to pronounce host in British English: UK [həʊst] word uk audio image

How to pronounce host in American English: US [hoʊst] word us audio image

Noun:

a person who invites guests to a social event (such as a party in his or her own home) and who is responsible for them while they are there
a vast multitude
an animal or plant that nourishes and supports a parasite; the host does not benefit and is often harmed by the association
a person who acts as host at formal occasions (makes an introductory speech and introduces other speakers)
archaic terms for army
any organization that provides resources and facilities for a function or event
(medicine) recipient of transplanted tissue or organ from a donor
the owner or manager of an inn
(computer science) a computer that provides client stations with access to files and printers as shared resources to a computer network
Verb:

be the host of or for

Word Origin

host: host: Indo-European *ghostis denoted ‘stranger’. From it were descended Germanic *gastiz (source of English guest), Greek xénos ‘guest, stranger’ (source of English xenon and xenophobia), and Latin hostis ‘stranger, enemy’. This original meaning is retained in the derived adjective hostile [16], but the noun itself in postclassical times came to mean ‘army’, and that is where (via Old French) English got host ‘army’ [13] from.Its main modern sense, ‘large number’, is a 17th-century development. But Latin had another noun, hospes ‘host’, which was probably derived from hostis. Its stem form, hospit-, passed into Old French as hoste (whose modern French descendant hôte means both ‘host’ and ‘guest’). English borrowed this in the 13th century, giving it a second noun host, quite distinct in meaning, but ultimately of the same origin. (Other English words that owe their existence to Latin hospes include hospice, hospital, hostel, hotel, and ostler.) But that is not the end of the host story.English has yet another noun host, meaning ‘bread of the Eucharist’ [14]. This comes via Old French hoiste from Latin hostia ‘sacrifice, victim’.=> guest, hospital, hostile, hotel, ostler, xenon, xenophobia

host (n.1): "person who receives guests," late 13c., from Old French hoste "guest, host, hostess, landlord" (12c., Modern French hôte), from Latin hospitem (nominative hospes) "guest, host," literally "lord of strangers," from PIE *ghostis- "stranger" (cognates: Old Church Slavonic gosti "guest, friend," gospodi "lord, master;" see guest). The biological sense of "animal or plant having a parasite" is from 1857.

host (n.2): "multitude" mid-13c., from Old French host "army" (10c.), from Medieval Latin hostis "army, war-like expedition," from Latin hostis "enemy, foreigner, stranger," from the same root as host (n.1). Replaced Old English here, and in turn has been largely superseded by army. The generalized meaning of "large number" is first attested 1610s.

host (n.3): "body of Christ, consecrated bread," c. 1300, from Latin hostia "sacrifice," also "the animal sacrificed," applied in Church Latin to Christ; probably ultimately related to host (n.1) in its root sense of "stranger, enemy."

host (v.): "to serve as a host," early 15c., from host (n.1). Related: Hosted; hosting.