The Guest

It is said in the dictionary that the English word “guest” comes from Middle English: from Old Norse gestr, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch gast and German Gast, from an Indo-European root shared by Latin hostis ‘enemy’ (originally ‘stranger’).

Is it surprising that it shared the same root with “enemy” and “stranger”?

We call human “the host”, and in this case, this host’s guest, the virus, indeed is an enemy that, sometimes, claims the life of the guest.

The Chinese character, 客 ke4, original means the person who travels to a strange place, to a foreign country, the person who lives away from home.

And the lower part of the character tells the travelling man finally stops:

On the left you could see the buoyant travelling man swinging his arms and stretching his legs, and the right part indicates he has come to his journey’s end.

Later it evolves into this sign and it becomes less easy to tell the origin:

The upper part here is the traveller, and the lower part implies the stop.

It eventually becomes the symbol we still use today which forms the lower part of the character 客 ke5, guest:

And it has long lost its original meaning: the stopping traveller.

The other part, the upper part, of 客 ke4, guest, is simple enough: it’s a roof. This travelling man stops and comes to your roof to stay:

it’s plain enough to see the house and the guest under it.

Hundreds of years later, the Chinese decided there was a less difficult way to describe the guest:

There is indeed a flow, an easy elegance and a solidity in this guest.

Again with time, it changes and evolves into this one we use today:

Today, the explanation of the character has turned into a different channel: the upper part is still the roof, the middle part, now also means ‘hand’ (really, weren’t hand and foot in the beginning, when we were still animals, the same?) and the lower part, the mouth, indicate this guest who comes under your roof, and you hand this mouth, this guest, something to eat or drink: aren’t we all familiar with this etiquette?

So a guest could be an unsettling thing, a stranger, a possible enemy, or most likely it’s just some tired traveller who asks for a roof.

Aren’t we all have the experience of being this guest, this tired traveller? Timid under the strange roof, holds the bowl of rice wine he is offered and drinks and nods and smiles with all politeness.

And is it any wonder the Chinese way of replying “thank you” is “no guest air” 不客气 bu4ke4qi4: don’t be a guest?