a city in W Ohio.
a female given name.
First recorded in 1895–1900; from New Latin from Greek xenía “hospitality”; see origin at xen-, -ia
In botany, xenia is the way pollen affects the seeds and fruits of a plant as they develop. For the ancient Greeks, xenia was a concept that was all about being a gracious and generous host. Xenia is a Greek word meaning "rights of a guest," from xenos, "guest." Historians translate this word as "ritualized friendship," using it to describe a culture of treating foreigners and visitors alike with generous hospitality. The 19th-century botanist Wilhelm Olbers Focke borrowed the word xenia to describe a process of "foreign" pollen being received by a "host" plant.
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
This is why artists called pictures representing the things which were sent to guests "xenia."
From The Ten Books on Architecture by Vitruvius Pollio
Sweet golden-rod and xenia And crimson marigold, What dreams of autumn splendor Your velvet leaves unfold.
From Love or Fame; and Other Poems by Sherrick, Fannie Isabel
Capiant ne xenia, nec se Pollicitis flecti muneribus ve sinant.
From A booke called the Foundacion of Rhetorike because all other partes of Rhetorike are grounded thereupon, euery parte sette forthe in an Oracion vpon questions, verie profitable to bee knowen and redde by Rainolde, Richard
We fancied that we could detect bitternut flavor in good shagbarks about the plantings, due to xenia influence, as in the case of chestnuts.
From Northern Nut Growers Association Incorporated 39th Annual Report at Norris, Tenn. September 13-15 1948 by Northern Nut Growers Association
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
