Definition
"Host" carries two distinct legal meanings that are almost entirely unrelated to each other and separated by centuries of usage.
1. Military/Medieval Law. In its oldest legal sense, derived from Law French, "host" means an army, a military expedition, or the state of war itself. This meaning appears in medieval English legal texts and is the sense recorded in both editions of Black's Law Dictionary.
2. Modern Tort Law. In contemporary legal usage — particularly in negligence and dram shop contexts — a "host" is a person or entity that provides hospitality, food, drink, or lodging to guests on private or commercial premises. The tort doctrine of social host liability turns on this meaning: a private individual who furnishes alcohol to guests at a social gathering may, under certain circumstances, bear civil liability for harm caused by an intoxicated guest after leaving the premises. This is distinct from a commercial host (a bar or restaurant), whose liability is typically governed by dram shop statutes.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A person who receives or entertains guests; also, in a biological or computing context, an organism or system that harbors another. The theological meaning — the consecrated bread of the Eucharist — is a separate and unrelated word of Latin origin (hostia, meaning sacrificial victim), though spelled identically in English.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "The consecrated wafer, believed to be the body of Christ, which in the Mass is offered as a sacrifice; also, the bread before consecration."
The Eucharistic meaning of "host" and the hospitality meaning of "host" are etymologically distinct words that converged in English spelling. Neither the Eucharistic meaning nor the everyday hospitality meaning corresponds directly to the medieval legal sense of an army or military expedition. Researchers encountering "host" in historical legal materials should determine which of these parallel meanings is operative before drawing any inference about the document's subject matter.
Common Confusion
The word "host" creates a specific trap in historical legal research: a reader unfamiliar with the Law French military sense may assume any occurrence of the word refers to a person providing hospitality. In medieval pleading and statutory materials, "host" almost always means an army or armed expedition, not a party giving lodgings. Conversely, in modern tort opinions and statutes, the hospitality meaning is nearly universal and the military sense is obsolete. The two senses do not overlap.
A secondary confusion arises between social host liability and commercial host (dram shop) liability. These are legally distinct frameworks with different standards, defenses, and statutory bases. Conflating them in research produces incorrect doctrinal conclusions.
Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES
Social Host: A private individual who furnishes alcohol at a non-commercial gathering. Liability rules vary sharply by jurisdiction and are predominantly judge-made.
Commercial Host: A licensed seller of alcohol — a bar, restaurant, or vendor — whose liability is typically governed by dram shop acts rather than common law negligence principles.
Why It Matters in Research
The medieval military sense is essentially a dead letter in modern legal practice but appears regularly in older statutes, Year Books, and treatises you may encounter in the Law Mind corpus. Kelham's glossary and Britton (Britt. c. 22) are the primary historical anchors Black's relies on; if you are chasing that citation trail, those are the correct sources.
For modern research, the action is entirely in tort law. Social host liability is one of the more jurisdiction-sensitive doctrines in American tort law: some states recognize robust common law liability, others limit or abolish it by statute, and a handful have codified it in dram shop acts alongside commercial host liability. The Law Mind Torts encyclopedia entry on Social Host Liability maps this terrain.
One navigational note: cases and secondary sources sometimes use "host" loosely to mean either the social host or the commercial host without specifying which framework applies. When reading opinions, always confirm whether the court is applying common law negligence principles (typically social host) or a dram shop statute (typically commercial host), as the elements, defenses, and damage caps differ.
Historical Dictionary Support
Both editions of Black's treat "host" exclusively in its Law French military sense, citing Britton and Kelham. Neither edition addresses the hospitality or tort meaning at all — a significant gap reflecting how completely the modern tort doctrine postdates the classical dictionary tradition. The first edition and second edition entries are nearly identical, offering no evolution between them.
The absence of any hospitality or tort meaning in Black's is not an error; it reflects the dictionary's historical focus. Researchers who open Black's expecting guidance on social host liability will find nothing relevant and must look to modern secondary sources, treatises on tort law, and jurisdiction-specific dram shop annotations instead.
The Webster's 1913 entry for "host" as the Eucharistic wafer is linguistically unrelated to both the military and hospitality senses and has no bearing on legal usage.
Jurisdictional Note
Social host liability is among the most variable doctrines in American tort law. Some states impose common law liability on social hosts who serve visibly intoxicated guests; others have expressly rejected social host liability by statute or judicial decision. A small number have folded social hosts into their dram shop acts. Research must be jurisdiction-specific and current.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Specialized Tort Topics — Social Host Liability (The Law Mind Torts & Personal Injury Encyclopedia)