Emily Dickinson Lexicon

HOST, n. [L. hostia, a victim or sacrifice, from hostis, an enemy; Fr. hostie; applied to the Savior, who was offered for the sins of men.]

In the Romish church, the sacrifice of the mass, or the consecrated wafer, representing the body of Christ, or as the Romanists alledge, transubstantiated into his own body. Encyc.