• hospitable •
Pronunciation: hahs-pit-ê-bêl • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: 1. Friendly, sociable, cordial, welcoming, as 'a hospitable host'. 2. Open-minded, receptive, as 'a hospitable reception of new ideas'. 3. Agreeable, favorable, far from hostile, as 'a hospitable discussion'.
Notes: You don't have to beat someone up to make him or her hospitable. Just let them be and they will embrace you with their hospitality, the slightly different quality noun. The adverb is the regular hospitably.
In Play: This word is most often used to describe a host: "Lucy Lastic was very hospitable to the football team this weekend." Otherwise, it might mean "receptive": "Dad wasn't very hospitable to the idea that I drive my friends to the shore in his new Mercedes-Benz."
Word History: English took this word from Old French hospitable on one of its many raids on that language; French inherited it from Latin hospitalis "related to a guest or a host", based on hospes "host", hospita "hostess". Latin came by its word from PIE ghos-pot- "guest-master", source also of Russian gospod "master, gentleman, lord". Latin also turned PIE ghos-pot into hospes "entertainer, host", which Old French turned into hoste "host, hostess" (today's French hôte), which English borrowed for its host. The first component of this compound, ghos- emerged in more words, like German Gast, Dutch gast, Norwegian gjest, Russian gost, Polish gość, Czech host, Irish ósta, and Welsh gwestai "guest". Hotel and hospital share the same source for obvious semantic reasons. (Now a warm, hospitable welcome and word of thanks to newcomer Yelen Espelita for bringing with her such a historically rich Good Word as today's.)
