Guest Chain

Although the word is known only in the WGer. langs. (in all of which it is found with substantially identical meaning), it appears to be of pre-Teut. formation. The sense of the pre-Teut. ghoizdo-z, if the ordinary view of its etymological relations be correct, should be ‘fury, anger’: cf. Skr. hedas neut. anger, Zend zoizda- ugly; the root gheis- ghoisappears with cognate sense in ON geisa to rage, Goth. usgaisjan to terrify (see Gast v.); outside Teut. the derivatives seem to point to a primary sense ‘to wound, tear, pull to pieces.’ —OED, Ghost Forms: … —OTeut. gasti-z: —WAryan ghosti-s, represented also by L. hostis, orig. ‘stranger’, in classical use ‘enemy’ (whence the compound hosti-pot-, contracted hospit-, hospes guest, host)… —OED, Guest The third corollary can also be political: it is what would make us pass, in spirit, from the hostage to the host/guest and from the host/guest to the ghost. (This is the series constituted by the hostage, host, guest, ghost, holy ghost, and Geist.) —Jacques Derrida, Aporias