Translation
hospitable
Word origin
A compound built inside Esperanto from gasto ('guest') and the root am- ('to love'), with the adjective ending: guest-loving. The English word hospitable takes the same idea through Latin hospes instead.
- Origin
- Esperanto compound
- Root
- gasto + am- + -a
- English cognates
- guest
Examples
.
The family were very hospitable and kind.
.
A hospitable house always has room for one more.
.
They live in a hospitable village by the sea.
Three pieces, and none of them is an affix. Gasto
is a guest, am- is the root of , to love, and -a makes an adjective.
Guest-loving: hospitable. It is a compound, not a derivation, and the difference
matters because -am- is not on the official list of Esperanto suffixes at all.
You are welding two ordinary roots together, exactly as welds foot
and ball.
The pattern is productive and worth stealing. Pacama is peace-loving,
homama is philanthropic, laborama means loving one's work, mokama is fond
of mocking. Once you see -ama as "loves doing this", a whole shelf of
adjectives opens up.
Now the contrast that actually earns its keep: -ama against -ema.-- is an official suffix, and it means inclined or prone to, with no
affection in it. So a is industrious, disposed to work, whether or not
the person enjoys it; laborama says they love the work. a is
irritable, quick to anger; nobody would say kolerama, because loving anger is
a different claim. The rough test: -ema describes a tendency, -ama describes
a taste. And a would mean inclined to have guests, which is close
enough that you will meet it, but is the standard word.
Where you meet it in the wild. Esperanto's Pasporta Servo, the list of
speakers who put visiting Esperantists up for nothing, runs entirely on this
adjective, and is the compliment the movement pays most often. The
noun is gastamo, hospitality, and the place is a
gastejo. More on the spoken, travelling side of the
language in spoken Esperanto.
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gastama: worksheet, infographic and listicle
Free printable study downloads for the Esperanto word "gastama" (hospitable): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.
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Start your free weekThis word is part of lesson 50.