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[Meaning] a friend.[1]
"Embassies used to come from the cities because they considered him their guest-friend and an adviser on their manner of life and the establishment of temples and images. He set each of these things to rights."[2]
And elsewhere: "[men] create guest-friends in their own countries."[3]
A xenos is also someone who receives strangers.[4] The Apostle [says]: "my friend the xenos greets you."[5]

Xenos: ho philos. ephoitôn de presbeiai ek tôn poleôn xenon te auton hêgoumenoi kai biou sumboulon bômôn te hidruseôs kai agalmatôn. ho de hekasta toutôn diôrthouto. kai authis: en tais idiais patrisi xenous poiountai. Xenos kai ho xenodochos. ho Apostolos: aspazetai humas xenos ho philos mou.

[1] The Greek vocabulary, hard to match in English, is xenos glossed with philos.
[2] An approximation of Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana 4.1.
[3] Quotation not identified by Adler, but identifiable via the TLG as Hermippus ap. Diogenes Laertius 1.102: an anecdote about Anacharsis (alpha 2130) arriving in Athens in the early C6 BCE, requesting guest-friendship with Solon, and -- at first -- getting the brush-off with this remark.
[4] cf. generally xi 40, xi 58.
[5] Ep. Romans 16.23, which actually reads "Gaius my xenos greets you."

Catharine Roth (supplied headword translation, note) on 1 June 2002@00:57:56.
Catharine Roth (modified translation) on 2 June 2002@00:01:13.
David Whitehead (supplied notes; added keyword; cosmetics) on 3 June 2002@04:05:07.
David Whitehead (another keyword) on 4 October 2005@09:06:51.
David Whitehead (augmented notes and keywords; tweaks and cosmetics; raised status) on 29 August 2007@09:02:22.
David Whitehead (source identification) on 11 April 2011@05:17:25.
David Whitehead (another note; tweaking) on 19 June 2013@03:17:43.

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