1. hostis — de Vaan
hostis 'foreigner, enemy' [m., f. i] (Lex XII+; also fostis Paul ex F. 84, probably hypercorrecty1) Derivatives: hosticus 'foreign, of the enemy' (PI.+), hostllis 'of an enemy' (Pl>), — [de Vaan, s.v. hostis, p. 305]
The corpus record — Latin
hostis
hostis
foreigner, enemy
Generated live from the audited Latin corpus — every figure on this page is a database query, not prose from memory.
Where it lives
- Ab urbe condita, books 21-25 - 22 161 · 93.72/10k
- Ab urbe condita, books 6-10 - 10 129 · 85.18/10k
- Ab urbe condita, books 6-10 - 9 135 · 84.22/10k
- Ab Urbe Condita, books 8-10 - 17s 1 · 83.33/10k
- Ab urbe condita, books 21-25 - 25 120 · 82.8/10k
- Ab urbe condita, books 6-10 - 7 93 · 70.4/10k
- Ab urbe condita, books 6-10 - 8 88 · 68.03/10k
- Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32 - 31 84 · 66.46/10k
- De bello Gallico 338 · 65.89/10k
- Ab urbe condita, books 6-10 - 6 85 · 63.17/10k
- Ab urbe condita, books 1-5 - 3 124 · 61.38/10k
- Chabrias 3 · 61.35/10k
Densest 12 of 277 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.
What it meant
2. hostis — Lewis & Short
hostis (also fos-), is, comm.Sanscr. root ghas-, to eat, consume, destroy; Germ. Gast; cf. also hasta,
I a stranger, foreigner; afterwards transf., an enemy (cf.:
adversarius, inimicus, perduellis): equidem etiam illud animadverto, quod qui proprio nomine perduellis esset, is hostis vocaretur, lenitate verbi rei tristitiam mitigatam. Hostis enim apud majores nostros is dicebatur, quem nunc peregrinum dicimus ... quamquam id nomen durius effecit jam vetustas: a peregrino enim recessit et proprie in eo qui arma contra ferret remansit,Cic. Off. 1, 12, 37; cf. Varr. L. L. 5, § 3 Müll.: hostis apud antiquos peregrinus dicebatur, et qui nunc hostis perduellio, Paul. ex Fest. p. 102 P.—
II An enemy in arms or of one's country (opp. inimicus, a private enemy, or one who is inimically disposed).
A Lit.:
qui (Pompeius) saepius cum hoste conflixit quam quisquam cum inimico concertavit,Cic. de Imp. Pomp. 10, 28; cf.:
omnes nos statuit ille quidem non inimicos sed hostes,id. Phil. 11, 1, 3;
opp. inimicus,Curt. 7, 10 (v. also the foll.):
debent oratori sic esse adversariorum nota consilia, ut hostium imperatori,Quint. 12, 1, 35:
legiones hostium,Plaut. Am. prol. 136:
hostes nefarios prostravit,Cic. Phil. 14, 10, 27:
(bellum) compellere intra hostium moenia,id. Rep. 1, 1:
vita ex hostium telis servata,id. ib. 1, 3:
adventus hostium,id. ib. 2, 3:
ut eam (probitatem) vel in eis quos numquam vidimus, vel, quod majus est, in hoste etiam diligamus,id. Lael. 9, 29:
hostem rapinis prohibere,Caes. B. G. 1, 15, 4:
quando hostis alienigena terrae Italiae bellum intulisset,Liv. 29, 10, 5:
servit Hispanae vetus hostis orae Cantaber sera domitus catena,Hor. C. 3, 8, 21:
terra marique victus hostis,id. Epod. 9, 27 et saep.:
inimicis quoque et hostibus ea indigna videri,Cic. Inv. 1, 54, 105; cf.:
inimicus, hostis esset, tanta contumelia accepta,Cic. Verr. 2, 2, 24, § 58:
sibi inimicus atque hostis,id. Fin. 5, 10, 29:
horum omnium communis hostis praedoque,Cic. Verr. 2, 2, 6, § 17:
tam dis hominibusque hostis,id. Phil. 2, 26, 64; id. Att. 15, 21, 1:
Cn. Pompeius auctor et dux mei reditus, illius (Clodii) hostis,id. Mil. 15, 39:
acer Bupalo hostis (Hipponax),Hor. Epod. 6, 14:
fas est et ab hoste doceri,Ov. M. 4, 428:
di meliora piis erroremque hostibus illum!Verg. G. 3, 513; cf. Ov. H. 16, 219; id. Am. 2, 10, 16; id. F. 3, 494; id. P. 4, 6, 35:
quam (aquam) hostis hosti commodat,Plaut. Rud. 2, 4, 21.— In fem.:
hostis est uxor, invita quae ad virum nuptum datur,Plaut. Stich. 1, 2, 83:
nupta meretrici hostis est,Ter. Hec. 5, 2, 23:
ut, quo die captam hostem vidisset, eodem matrimonio junctam acciperet,Liv. 30, 14, 2:
cum certa videbitur hostis,Ov. A. A. 2, 461; id. H. 6, 82; Prop. 1, 4, 18:
ille uxorem, tu hostem luges,Curt. 4, 11, 4.—
B Transf., of animals or things (poet. and in post-Aug. prose):
qualem ministrum fulminis alitem ... in ovilia Demisit hostem vividus impetus,Hor. C. 4, 4, 10; Ov. F. 1, 359:
rhinoceros genitus hostis elephanto,Plin. 8, 20, 29, § 71.—Of a chessman:
unus cum gemino calculus hoste perit,Ov. A. A. 3, 358:
fac, pereat vitreo miles ab hoste tuus,id. ib. 2, 208:
rerum ipsa natura non parens sed noverca fuerit, si facultatem dicendi sociam scelerum, adversam innocentiae, hostem veritatis invenit,Quint. 12, 1, 2:
illa vero vitiosissima, quae jam humanitas vocatur, studiorum perniciosissima hostis,id. 2, 2, 10—
2 Of an adversary in a suit, in a parody of the law of the Twelve Tables:
si status condictus cum hoste intercedit dies,Plaut. Curc. 1, 1, 5; cf. also Gell. 16, 4, 4.
3. hostis — Walde–Hofmann
hostis (dial. fostis Paul. Fest. 84), -és m. f. „Fremdling“ (peregrinus, opp. civis [s. oben S. 224), vgl. Paul. Fest. 102 hostis apud antiquos peregrinus dieebätur, et qui nunc hostis, perduellis, Varro L. 1. 5, 3, Cic. off. 1, 37, Gell. 16, 4, 3 und s. hospes); später „der feindliche Fremde, Kriegsfeind“ (opp. inimzeus „Privatfeind“; sekundär dicht. auch Adj., z. B. Stat. "heb. 11, 22) (seit XII tab., rom. … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. hostis, p. 694]
In the wild
- hostium Livy, Ab urbe condita 1.10.14.17
- hoste Livy, Ab urbe condita 4.42.63.7
- hostium Livy, Ab urbe condita 4.42.58.2
- hosti Livy, Ab urbe condita, books 6-10 - 6 p3
- hostis Pseudo-Caesar, De Bello Hispaniensi 31
- hostem Livy, Ab urbe condita 1.6.24.10
6 of 9,179 attestations shown.
Where it came from
- Treated in de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) s.v. hostis (scan p. 305; entry #780).
- Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. hostis (scan p. 325; entry #5136).
- Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. hostis (scan p. 694; entry #1342).
Latin text and lemmatization derived from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0. Lewis & Short (public domain) via Perseus. This derived data is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.