Hospital: if you study the history of this word it was once a house for religious pilgrims and travelers, then a home for old people, and finally now a place where sick people go. We all know this word.
Hospitality: what a good host or hostess offers a guest. We don't all know this word.
Hospice: a place or program to help care for the terminally ill. Actually, you would be surprised how few people know this word. Some families of people who are told to transfer their elderly grandmother or grandfather to a "Hospice" don't realize the doctor is telling them that they have given up and their beloved is going to die. I love the people who work at Hospices- these are real heros. A doctor, fireman, or police officer don't expect to go into work every day to find death and carnage- you expect to find it occasionally and mostly to prevent it. People who work in hospice go into work knowing what they must face- the mortality of human life.
Hostel: an inexpensive, supervised place for young travelers to stay overnight. This is like the closest thing to a dollar bill found in an old jacket that you are going to get. Suppose you are barely graduated from high school or college (maybe not yet) and you have a few hundred dollars to live on for a couple of months. You want to see Europe. On one side of the street you see a, I don't know, Hilton. On the other, a place where you can stay for $20 where they have bunk beds and vintage 1960 sofas where you can hang out with people who are well traveled, aspiring writers, hippies, and/or occasional ax murders. Still, I would opt for the Hostel.
Inhospitable: 1. not welcoming or generous. 2. Providing no shelter or food - i.e. think desert or life raft in the middle of the ocean. While if one has a life threatoning condition for which there is no current explanation one might want to go see Dr. Gregory House the brilliant, unconventional, yet misanthropic doctor in the T.V. series "House", his character is about as inhospitable to patients as he could be. As the story goes, they keep him around because he is effective, not polite.
Hostage: a person given or held to ensure that an agreement, demand, or treaty is kept or fulfilled. As recently as Oct. 2010 a $750,000 ransom was paid to release a British couple taken hostage by pirates. Not a lot is know about the person who paid the ransom; the British government previously released this statement: "The government will not make substantive concessions for hostage takers, including the payments of ransom." British officials said negotiating with hostage takers would only encourage more kidnappings. Meanwhile, for a year this poor British couple were forced to sit around with bearded men drinking rum, playing cards, while occasionally being forced to cook or clean the deck for them. What a terribly inhospitable life. Thank god they were rescued. Hargh.
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