As a woman, for social gatherings in my home, am I considered the host or the hostess?

Answer 1

You would be the hostess.... but you are hosting the party.....

have fun....

Answer 2

As a woman, you are always the hostess. Nothing more needs to be said. A host is the man.

Answer 3

As a woman always the Hostess.

Answer 4

If you have no partner or spouse that will be there with you, you would be considered the hostess. Host is a masculine term with hostess being the feminine term.

Answer 5

Is Elizabeth Barrett Browning a poet? or a poetess?

The English language is continually evolving and changing. Centuries ago, English nouns more often had a gender, as do modern Spanish and German. In those days, professional and other titles usually came in pairs, one form for the male and one for the female. Some examples are abbot & abbess, baker & baxter. Some of these forms are no longer used, but some persist. For instance newspaper articles called Charles Lindberg an aviator, but Amelia Earheart an aviatrix. Waiter & waitress, host & hostess are still with us but are gradually being replaced by gender neutral terms. When speaking (or writing) in general terms it becomes awkward to continually say 'host or hostess' so 'host' is used as the generic, gender neutral term. It is perfectly correct to refer to yourself by either term, "I'm hostessing a party" sounds a little silly compared to "I'm hosting a party."

Answer 6

Good grief. The hostess...unless you're a she-male, in which case you'll be both the host and hostess.

Answer 7

I like to be the hostess! The hostess with the mostess! I like being girly - I like a beautiful home and like to serve my guests - how often in this world of ours do people have that anymore?

Answer 8

My husband and I consider ourselves the "hosts of the party".

I don't like hostess....it sounds too girly.

Answer 9

Hostess - formally.

Answer 10

Hosts

Hostess is more appropriate for "flight hostess", "lounge hostess".