"guest (also host)" in seven languages
Meaningguest (also host)
Spanish
/ˈwesped/
masc.inherited
Formal; for a party guest Spanish says invitado.
French
/ot/
masc.inherited
Both host and guest; a hotel guest is a client.
Italian
/ˈɔspite/
masc.learned
Its inherited doublet is oste 'innkeeper'.
Portuguese
/ˈɔspedʒi/
masc.learned
Semi-learned (the proparoxytone was never reduced); an invited guest is a convidado.
Romanian
/ˈo̯aspete/
masc.inherited
Catalan
/ˈɔstə/
masc.inherited
Like French hôte, it can mean both guest and host; an invited guest is a convidat.
English
/gɛst/
Indo-European kin · PIE *gʰóstis
Native guest and borrowed host are distant cognates, both from PIE *gʰóstis.
The Latin ancestor
HOSPITEM (nom. HOSPES)‘guest; host’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
Latin HOSPES meant both host and guest, and French hôte and Italian ospite still do. Spanish broke the open o (huésped, with a silent h in front); French lost the s and marked it with a circumflex.
English relatives: host, hospitality, hospital, hotel