Xenagogue
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 One who guides strangers; a guide or tour guide. obsolete, rare
"[…] I vvill be their Xenagogus, or guide, and firſt ſhevv them our Country of Kent, the inhabitants vvhereof, [Julius] Cæſar himſelf in his Commentaries, confeſſeth to be of all others the moſt full of humanity and gentleneſſe."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"[…] I vvill be their Xenagogus, or guide, and firſt ſhevv them our Country of Kent, the inhabitants vvhereof, [Julius] Cæſar himſelf in his Commentaries, confeſſeth to be of all others the moſt full of humanity and gentleneſſe."
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ξεναγωγός (xenagōgós), from ξένος (xénos, “foreigner; guest; stranger”, noun) (possibly ultimately Pre-Greek) + ἀγωγός (agōgós, “(adjective) guiding, leading; (noun) escort, guide”) (from ᾰ̓́γω (ắgō, “to bring along, lead”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ- (“to drive”)) + -ός (-ós, suffix forming agentive or patientive adjectives and nouns)). By surface analysis, xen- (prefix meaning ‘relating to foreigners or strangers’) + -agogue (suffix denoting something leading to another thing).
Related phrases
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.