xenagogue means one who guides strangers; a guide or tour guide. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 88 out of 100.
xenagogue is pronounced /ˈzɛnəɡɒɡ/.
Why “xenagogue” is a great word
A person who guides strangers or foreigners through unfamiliar places. It is a learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ξεναγωγός (xenagōgós), from ξένος (xénos, "foreigner, stranger") + ἀγωγός (agōgós, "guide, leader"), first attested in English in 1674. Unlike a cicerone, who explicates antiquities and culture with scholarly intent, or an escort, who implies protective or social companionship, a xenagogue is the elemental function of guidance itself. It is the local pilot at the dockside, the calm voice navigating the labyrinthine bazaar, the first face you trust in a land where you know no one—the architect who transmutes the chaos of arrival into the tentative warmth of a known destination.
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ξεναγωγός (xenagōgós), from ξένος (xénos, “foreigner; guest; stranger”, noun) (possibly ultimately Pre-Greek) + ἀγωγός (agōgós, “(adjective) guiding, leading; (noun) escort, guide”) (from ᾰ̓́γω (ắgō, “to bring along, lead”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ- (“to drive”)) + -ός (-ós, suffix forming agentive or patientive adjectives and nouns)). By surface analysis, xen- (prefix meaning ‘relating to foreigners or strangers’) + -agogue (suffix denoting something leading to another thing).
noun
- One who guides strangers; a guide or tour guide.“[…] I vvill be their Xenagogus, or guide, and firſt ſhevv them our Country of Kent, the inhabitants vvhereof, [Julius] Cæſar himſelf in his Commentaries, confeſſeth to be of all others the moſt full of humanity and gentleneſſe.”