Why Is the Eucharist Called “the Host”?

The Latin word "hostis," meaning victim, was first applied to the Eucharist in early Christianity



Aleteia
May 22, 2016

The Eucharist is referred to as a host, but why?

I decided to seek out the origin of the word “host,” so I checked several dictionaries and discovered that a Latin word linked to its history meant “victim.”

The Romans referred to a vanquished enemy offered to the gods as a hostis.

The term became common in Western Christianity because of its use in the Vulgate (the Latin translation of the Bible, made mostly by St. Jerome), for example in Ephesians 5:2 and Philippians 4:18, to signify sacrifice.

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