usually in pl. xenia. [L., ad. Gr. ξένιον, prop. neut. of ξένιος adj. pertaining to a guest, f. ξένος guest, stranger.] a. In Gr. and Rom. Antiq., a present (esp. of table delicacies) given to a guest or stranger; transf., in mediæval usage, an offering made (sometimes compulsorily) by subjects to their prince on the occasion of his passing through their estates; also extended to other kinds of offerings (see quots.).
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Xenia, Presents bestowed by the Greeks to their Friends, Guests, or Strangers…. In our old Records, it is taken for such Presents or Gifts as us’d to be made to Princes, or to the Governours of Provinces.
1773. [S. Denne], Hist. Rochester, 106. That there be reserved to me … out of the estates which I have assigned for the maintenance of the monks, such a xenium [orig. exenium] as is here specified.
1865. Stubbs, Chron. & Mem. Rich. I. (Rolls), II. Introd. p. xxx. The xenia, or Easter and Christmas offerings from [the monks’] manors, which were settled on the cellarer for the use of the sick and strangers.
b. (See quots.)
1791. Newton, trans. Vitruvius’ Archit., VI. X. 145. The pictures representing the sending of gifts to strangers are by the painters called xenia.
1854. Fairholt, Dict. Terms Art, Xenia.… Pictures of still-life, fruit, fish, &c., many of which have been found as decorations on the walls of houses in Pompeii.
