a. Gr. Antiq. [f. Gr. ξενία XENIA + -AL.] Of the nature of, or pertaining to, the relation between host and guest: applied to a friendly relation between two persons of different countries, or between a person and a foreign country. So Xenian a. (in quot. 1834 rendering Gr. ξένιος, a title of Zeus as protector of the rights of hospitality).
1834. Fraser’s Mag., X. 533. The holy customs of the Xenian Jove.
1858. Gladstone, Homer, I. 220. The Taphians,… from the xenial relation of their Lord Mentes to Ulysses, must in all likelihood have lived in the neighbourhood of Ithaca. Ibid. (1869), Juv. Mundi, iii. 87. Demetor Tasides … is represented … as being in xenial relations with Egypt.
