The answer is ADVERSE, seven letters. Its Latin source means turned against, which is about as close to hostile as English gets. Remove the D and you have AVERSE, a six-letter fill for the same clue with a different meaning, so count the squares before writing either one in.
Turned against is not turned away
ADVERSE and AVERSE come from the same Latin verb, vertere, to turn, with different prefixes attached. Adverse goes back to adversus, turned against or facing, with ad, toward, and it has meant contrary or opposing in English since the late 1300s. Averse goes back to aversus, turned away, with ab, away from, and it has meant disliking or unwilling since the mid-1400s.
An old dictionary drew the line neatly: averse applies to feeling and adverse to action, as in “I was very averse to his going” set against “an adverse vote.” The split still works in everyday English, where weather and side effects are adverse and a person is averse to risk. Both words turn up as fills for this clue, so the square count, seven against six, usually decides before meaning has to.
Inimical means not a friend
INIMICAL, at eight letters, is the most literal fill in the set. It entered English in the 1640s from Late Latin inimicalis, built on inimicus, unfriendly or an enemy, which is simply in-, not, attached to amicus, friend. An inimical force is, word for word, an unfriend.
ENEMY comes from the same Latin word by a longer road, through Old French enemi, and English has had it since the early 1200s. It has also worked as an adjective since the middle of the 1300s, as in enemy territory, which is how ENEMY can answer a clue that seems to want a description. An old usage note quoted by one etymology dictionary even separates inimical from hostile: inimical for private affairs, hostile for public ones.
The stranger inside hostile
Hostile reached English in the late 1400s from Latin hostilis, of an enemy, built on hostis. In early Latin hostis meant a stranger or foreigner, and only in classical use did it settle on enemy. The same word gave English host in the sense of a multitude, by way of Old French host, an army, while the host who receives guests comes from a neighboring Latin word, hospes. Both trace to a root meaning stranger, guest and host at once.
American English later turned the adjective into a noun, recorded from 1838 for a hostile person. That noun reading is how FOE can answer this clue in a three-square slot: the setter treats hostile as the person, not the quality.
Hostile answers from three squares to twelve
Count the squares, then match the wording:
| Letters | Answer | What triggers it |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | ICY | Frosty, cold shoulder treatment |
| 3 | ILL | As in ill will |
| 3 | FOE | Hostile read as a noun |
| 4 | UGLY | A mood or crowd turning threatening |
| 4 | ANTI | Clue reads hostile to |
| 5 | ENEMY | Adjective use, as in enemy lines |
| 6 | AVERSE | Feeling, not action |
| 6 | BITTER | Resentment in the wording |
| 7 | ADVERSE | Conditions or effects |
| 7 | WARLIKE | Open aggression, arms |
| 8 | INIMICAL | Formal, literally unfriendly |
| 10 | AGGRESSIVE | Ready to attack |
| 11 | ILLDISPOSED | Unfriendly in attitude |
| 12 | ANTAGONISTIC | Actively opposed |
| 12 | INHOSPITABLE | A place or climate that repels |
When a mood turns UGLY
UGLY is the four-letter answer that surprises people, but the hostile sense is old. The word comes from Old Norse uggligr, dreadful, built on uggr, fear. Its first English meaning, in the 1200s, was frightful or horrible to look at, and it softened to unsightly later. The sense of threatening danger is recorded from the 1650s, and ill-tempered or quarrelsome from the 1680s.
That is the reading a hostile clue borrows, the way a crowd or a mood turns ugly, so the answer has nothing to do with appearance here. ANTI, the other four-letter candidate, usually needs the clue to read hostile to, since it names a position rather than a temper.
