hostie meaning (obsolete): definition, etymology and quotations

hostie

noun

/ˈhəʊsti/

Etymology Borrowed from Middle French hostie, from Latin hostia.

Catholicism, Christianity Scotland, Obsolete the consecrated bread or wafer of the Eucharist, host.

1694 August 9, James Drummond, 4th Earl of Perth, Letter XII, in 1845, William Jerdan (editor), Letters from James, Earl of Perth, Lord Chancellor of Scotland, &c, to His Sister, Countess of Erroll, and Other Members of His Family, page 40, This Hostie* is carryed about the streets in procession : and really it is very fine to see the solemnity.
But he went to another Prieſt, that lived in the Court, who gave him the pix with an hoſtie in it.1725, Gilbert Burnet, The History of the Reign of King Charles II: Bishop Burnet's History of His Own Time, page 1011:

1 more example

The confessor gave him an hostie,* with a piece of wood, that was, as he pretended, a true piece of the cross, and by these he was to be fortify himself, if any other apparition should come to him, since evil spirits would certainly be chained up by them.[…]The friar presented the hostie to them, which gave them such a check, that he was fully satisfied of the virtue of this preservative.1836, Church of England, Extraordinary Instance of Romish Imposition: The Church of England Magazine, volume 1, page 349:

noun

Etymology From hostess + -ie (“diminutive suffix”).

Australia, Informal An air hostess.

A lovely hostie approached my seat, `Mr. Vautin, just looking at you makes me think we might need a forklift to get you off the plane.'1995, Paul Vautin, Turn It Up!, Sydney: Pan Macmillan Australia, page 152:
If the alarm goes off, the hostie stops and looks for the likely suspect or asks all the people in the nearest seats who has an electronic device and tells whoever it is to turn the device off. The hostie doesn't have to decide if some smartarse who wants to listen on a scanner is trying to convince her that it only an MP3 player or whether device A is OK and device B isn't OK. If her instruction is that the device is to be turned off, then it's turned off!2003 June 21, smithxpj, “radios aboard aircraft - new rules”, in aus.radio.amateur.misc (Usenet):

2 more examples

Emma, who is still 2.5 cm under the required hostie height and therefore may never realise her dream, said of her ordeal, ‘I was scared, but I did it for my career.’2003, Frances Whiting, Oh to Be a Marching Girl, Pan Macmillan Australia, page 25:
2011, Les Hawkins, Great Australian Fly-Fishing Stories, Chapter 20, HarperCollins Publishers Australia, unnumbered page, The cute hostie at the check-in for Kamchatka accepted a note the Russian Ambassador in Canberra had given me about excess luggage and gave me a smile rather than a bill.