hospitium

[ho-spish-ee-uhm]

noun

plural

hospitia 

1. a hospice.

Word History and Origins

Origin of hospitium¹

1640–50; < Latin: hospitable reception, entertainment, place of entertainment, equivalent to hospit- (stem of hospes ) host, guest, stranger + -ium -ium

Example Sentences

The general tourist could chose from four classes of hotel, from the hospitium—which not only offered bedrooms and a full dinner service, but also had rooms that could be hired out for private functions—down to the stabula, the horse equivalent of a truck stop.

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“Hospice” stems from the Latin word hospitium, meaning “hospitality.”

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During the Middle Ages religious orders had employed the term - from the Latin "hospitium", meaning a lodging or inn - for shelters they established at important crossroads on the way to religious shrines.

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Plautus calls an entertainment free from these despicable guests, Hospitium sine muscis.

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Public hospitium seems also to have existed among the Italian races; but the circumstances of their history prevented it from becoming so important as in Greece.

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