Middle English Dictionary Entry
hōstes(se n.
Entry Info
| Forms | hōstes(se n. Also -asse, -resse, ostes(se, -esce, -is. |
| Etymology | OF |
Definitions (Senses and Subsenses)
1.
(a) A woman who receives and entertains guests or strangers in her home, hostess; the mistress of a household; also fig.; ?also, a female guest; (b) the guest mistress in a convent.
Associated quotations
a
- c1300 SLeg.Magd.(2) (LdMisc 108)139 : Ore louerd makede hire [Mary Magdalen] is procuratour, his leof, and is hostesse [a1425 Trin-C: ostesse].
- a1325 SLeg.(Corp-C 145)352/117 : 'Swete Louerd,' heo [St. Martha] sede, 'mi leue gist..Þi pore hostesse vnderuong..Inne me in þe ioie of heuene as þou innedest mid me.'
- (1402) Hoccl.Cupid (Hnt HM 744)461 : O womman þat of vertu art hostesse, Greet is thyn honur!
- a1425(c1395) WBible(2) (Roy 1.C.8)Ex.3.22 : A womman schal axe of hir neiȝboresse and of her hoosteesse [vr. hoostresse] siluerne vesselis.
- ?a1425(c1380) Chaucer Bo.(Benson-Robinson)4.m.3.23 : The godhede of Mercurie..hath unbownden hym [Ulysses] fro the pestilence of his oostesse [L hospitis].
- c1430(c1386) Chaucer LGW (Benson-Robinson)2496 : Thyn hostesse [vrr. ostes, hostes]..O Demophon, Thy Phillis..is so wo begon.
- c1450(1410) Walton Boeth.(Lin-C 103)p.236 : He halp hym fro þis perilouse hostesse [Circe].
- (a1460) Bokenham Sts. (Adv Abbotsford B3)123.103 (v.2:p.315) : Come [Martha], my weel-belouyd hostesse, for where I am thou shalt be with me: thou were wone .. to reseyue me gladly in thyn herberwe, and therefore .. I wele as gladly reseyuyn the to myn dwellynge place.
- a1475 St.Mary Magd.(2) (Dur-U Cosin V.2.14)212 : Oure lorde..wolde she were his hostesse [L hospitam] and his procuresse.
b
- (1440) PParv.(Hrl 221)372 : Oostesse:..hospiciaria.
2.
A woman who keeps a public lodging house or boarding house, the hostess of an inn, landlady.
Associated quotations
- c1300 SLeg.Edm.Abp.(LdMisc 108)103 : His hostasse [Hrl: ostesce] hadde one douȝter þere he was at inne.
- c1330(?c1300) Bevis (Auch)3763 : At here ostesse he askede þere, What al þe stoute stedes were.
- a1400 Floris (Eg 2862)492 : He gaf his Ost an hundryd shelyng, To his ost and to his Ostesse, And toke his leue.
- (1479) Let.Cely (PRO S.C.1 59/11)p.66 (75/4) : Your man wyth your akys com sowre seyk to Calles, and sow my ostys keped hyme a day and a nyght, and thyne we herd ij womon in the towne and the keped hyme at anoder howsse in the towne, and sow he ys deyd and theparded to God, God haue marsse on ys sowlle.
- a1500(?c1450) Merlin (Cmb Ff.3.11)101 : The hostesse hadde sette it in hir chambir.