English

Alternative forms

• guest-friendship

Noun

guestfriendship ‎(usually uncountable, plural guestfriendships)

1. Friendship shown to guests; hospitality.
   • 1993, Ralph J. Hexter, Robert Fitzgerald, A guide to the Odyssey:

     Penélopê formally extends her personal hospitality to the stranger, thereby creating that special relationship of guestfriendship which involves each party in making the other's interests his or her own.

   • 2005, Margo Kitts, Sanctified Violence in Homeric Society:

     We saw this in the renewed pledge of guestfriendship between Diomedes and Glaukos, the one's father having been a xeinos philos to the other's.

   • 2011, Daniela Carpi, Bioethics and Biolaw through Literature - Page 354:

     Prince Tarquinius entered the house as a guest, but since he did not follow the rules of guestfriendship, his presence marks a violent entry even before he has violated the hostess.

   • 2012, Robert A. Williams, Jr., Savage Anxieties: The Invention of Western Civilization:

     Professor Victor Alonso stresses the role of xenia as an overarching, transcending form of universally binding law in ancient Greece. He writes that the Greeks employed the institution of xenia, or guest-friendship, as a fundamental instrument and precept of international law.

Related terms

• guestfriendly
• guestfriendliness