From: "Giuseppe Pagliarulo" <
g.pagliarulo@...>
> I have a question: could Latin hospes "host" be derived from >
*ghosti-pot-s "one who has power over a foreigner"?> Thanks in
advance to everyone who will answer,
Hi, Giuseppe
I have just joined the list, so this is my debut. I think that Latin
"hospes" is derived from "*ghosti-potis-" whose original meaning
was probably something like "master of the stranger" or "master of
the enemy"(Skt "pati"- master) .
Stranger, enemy, guest and host are rather muddled up.
*ghosti is preserved in Slavonic "gosti, gost,gosc..."guest.
You will find again *gosti-pot(d) in Old Slav. gospodi, master or in
Polish gospodarz, host.
Ciao
Stefan
PS. I am a bilingual (English/Polish) journalist from Great Britain.