this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2025
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Mildly Interesting

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In Italian “ospite” means both “host” and “guest”
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[–] bokster@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 7 hours ago

Wait until you hear about "piano".

[–] sping@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 9 hours ago

Reminds me how American English uses the verb "rent" for both sides of the transaction. If someone says "I rent this apartment", you can what they mean from context.

In British English, the landlord "lets" an apartment that the tenant "rents", and that are advertised with signs "To let".

[–] VonReposti@feddit.dk 5 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

In Danish, "gift" means both "married" and "poison".

[–] teft@lemmy.world 4 points 15 hours ago

In spanish esposa means both wife and handcuffs.

[–] teft@lemmy.world 1 points 15 hours ago

Spanish is similar. The word is huesped. There is a word that means host but i never hear it. It is anfitrion.

[–] hakase@lemm.ee 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

This mirrors its Proto-Indo-European root *ghos- (also the ancestor of both "host" and "guest" through Romance and Germanic respectively), which we think originally meant a reciprocal relationship - "those who were bound by hospitality to each other".

[–] sik0fewl@lemmy.ca 1 points 23 hours ago

In ancient Greek there was Xenia, which is the concept of hospitality and the rules or norms for the hosts and guests. The word Xenia has the same PIE root, as well.