Hostile comes from the Latin hostīlis, from hostis meaning enemy.
Hostile can be a noun or an adjective. As a noun a hostile refers to "an antagonistic person or thing" or "an enemy in warfare." As an adjective it means "of, relating to, or characteristic of an enemy" and "unfavorable to health or well-being; inhospitable or adverse."
--AHD
This is a nice example of functional change--that is, when a word's part of speech is changed or extended. Hostile starts out as an adjective, but then it comes to be used as a noun, as well.
ReplyDelete