Host

Part of speech: noun, verb

Pronunciation: /həʊst/

Definitions

1. A person who arranges or entertains guests ; an organism that provides support or habitat to another living creature, especially one living on or in it ; a computer system that offers services or resources to other computers on a network
2. An individual who welcomes and manages guests at an event or show ; a biological entity that harbors a parasite or symbiotic organism to live and grow ; a machine in a network that supplies data, files, or applications to other connected devices
3. Someone who invites, receives, and looks after visitors or participants ; a natural organism that sustains another organism living with it, often in a dependent relationship ; a server computer that handles requests and resources for clients within a network

Etymology: The most surprising fact here is that "host" has three unrelated origins that happen to share one spelling. The guest-and-host sense comes from a single ancient word, "hospes," which Latin used for both the person who welcomed a visitor and the visitor being welcomed. That word was built from "hostis," meaning a stranger, and "potis," meaning master, so its original sense was roughly "master of strangers." The same root gave us "guest" in a different branch of English, which is why the two words are doublets. Latin "hostis" meant a foreign enemy, so the stranger at the door was once a potential threat. Old French "oste" carried both senses into the language, and English took "host" in the 13th century for the one who receives visitors and provides for them. The sense of an organism sheltering another, and the computer sense of a machine serving other machines, are later extensions of that core idea of a provider receiving others. A separate English "host," meaning a consecrated wafer, comes from Latin "hostia," meaning sacrificial victim, and is unrelated to the others.

Synonyms: organizer, presenter, emcee, moderator, facilitator

Antonyms: guest, attendee, visitor, outsider, interloper