guest

Etymology

From Middle English gest, from Old Norse gestr, which replaced or was merged with Old English ġiest, both from Proto-Germanic *gastiz, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰóstis (“stranger, guest, host, someone with whom one has reciprocal duties of hospitality”). Cognate with German Gast (“guest”), Norwegian gjest (“guest”). Doublet of host, from Latin.

noun

1. A recipient of hospitality, especially someone staying by invitation at the house of another.
   The guests were let in by the butler.
2. A patron or customer in a hotel etc.
   Guests must vacate their rooms by 10 o'clock on their day of departure.
3. An invited visitor or performer to an institution or to a broadcast.
   special guest
   The guest for the broadcast was a leading footballer.
4. (computing) A user given temporary access to a system despite not having an account of their own.
5. (zoology) Any insect that lives in the nest of another without compulsion and usually not as a parasite.
6. (zoology) An inquiline.

verb

1. (intransitive) to appear as a guest, especially on a broadcast
2. (intransitive) as a musician, to play as a guest, providing an instrument that a band/orchestra does not normally have in its line up (for instance, percussion in a string band)
3. (transitive, obsolete) To receive or entertain hospitably.