Emily Dickinson Lexicon

hospitality, n. [OFr < L. hospitālitās.]

Entertaining guests with kind and generous liberality.

host (-s, -'s), n. [OFr < L. hospitem, host, guest, stranger, foreigner.] (webplay: body, innkeeper, men, offered, pass, visit).

1. Great multitude.
2. Army; warlike gathering.
3. Entertainer of a guest at one's residence.
4. Receiver of lodgers at an inn.

hostile (-er), adj. [Fr. < L. hostīlis.]

Harsh; bitter; adverse.

hot (hottest), adj. [OE hát < Germanic.] (webplay: pursuit).

Having much heat; high in temperature.

hound, (-s), n. [OE hund < Germanic 'dog'.] (webplay: ears).

Hunting dog.

hour (-s), n. [OFr < L. < Gk. ὥ ρα, season, time of day.] (webplay: arrived, clock, day, death, earth, every, fall, half, hand, happy, home, minutes, moon, occasion, pointed, prayers, rest, running, sand, seconds, space, time).

1. Measure of time; sixty consecutive minutes; twenty-fourth measure of a passing day.
2. Time; experience; particular span; limited period in which something transpired.
3. Specific time of day; numerical measure of the passing time on a clock or watch.

house (-s), n. [OE hús < Germanic.] (webplay: abode, assembled, body, bondage, brick, church, concerns, covering, devour, dwelling, earthly, edifice, enact, estates, faithful, God, good, grave, heavens, household, human, laws, living, lords, man, mansion, materials, Moses, order, place, residence, size, soul, station, stone, square, wealth, wood, world, worship).

1. Home; dwelling; building; habitation for humanity.
2. Nest; dwelling of a creature.
3. Phrase. “Light House”: coastal building that gives light and direction to ships.
4. Theater audience; spectators in a playhouse.
5. Building for the keeping of plants.
6. Church; temple; tabernacle.
7. Biological family; ancestors and descendants.
8. Heaven; place in paradise; abode of the righteous dead.
9. Tomb; grave; final resting place.
10. Body; residence of the soul.
11. Wealth; estate; possessions.
12. Earth; natural paradisiacal state of the earth.

household (-s), n. [see house, n., hold, v.]

Family; those living under one roof and working together.

housewife (-'s, housewives), n. [see house, n., wife, n.; contracted as hŭswife, which pejorated to 'hussy'.]

1. Married woman who directs the affairs of home and family.
2. [Fig.] personification of nature that performing household tasks.

hover (-ed, -ing, -s), v. [origin unknown.] (webplay: back).

Hang over; flit around; move back and forth with irregular motions.