xenial
English
WOTD – 15 February 2007
Etymology
From Ancient Greek ξενία (xenía, “hospitality; relations of hospitality between states or between a person and a state; the status of an alien, i.e., not a citizen”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈziːnɪəl/, /ˈziːnjəl/
Audio (US) (file)
Adjective
xenial (comparative more xenial, superlative most xenial) (uncommon)
- Hospitable, especially to visiting strangers or foreigners.
- 1858, W. E. Gladstone, Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age, volume 2, Oxford University Press, pages 459–460:
- Thus then society is not arranged in clans, but in tribes, united by the general sense of a common name, a common abode, a common history, a common religion, and a remote sense of a common tribal stock, without any sense of personal affinity in each individual case. Again, it is curious to observe that the xenial relation was not less vivacious than that of blood.
- 2023 January 7, Hakeem Jeffries, A–Z speech:
- House Democrats will always put American values over autocracy, benevolence over bigotry, […] working families over the well-connected, xenial over xenophobia, “Yes we can!” over “You can’t do it,” and zealous representation over zero-sum confrontation!
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- Of the relation between a host and guest; friendly.
Related terms
- xenophobia
Translations
hospitable
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Further reading
- xenial in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
Anagrams
- alexin, exinal