Hotel

Forms

Hotel n (genitive Hotels, plural Hotels)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French hôtel, ostel, from Late Latin hospitāle (“guest room”).^[2][3][4] The French noun is related to hôte (“guest, host”), from Latin hospes (“guest; host”), and German Hospital has the same source.^[5][3] The same loan is Dutch hotel, English hotel and Swedish hotell.^[2]

The “h-” was never pronounced in French, so the German pronunciation with /h/ is a spelling pronunciation, hardly a return to Latin.^[2] The Deutsches Fremdwörterbuch dates the first records to the late 16th century, in travel writing and as an exotic word of the fashion for things French; at first the word was also spelled “Hostel” or “Ostel”, in the 18th century sometimes “Hotell” with the plural “Hotellen”.^[6] Kluge and Paul date the borrowing proper to the 18th century.^[2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In its first records the word refers to French conditions and means a palatial building or the town house of a noble: in 1579 ostel episcopal oder Bischoffshof “episcopal hôtel or bishop's residence”.^[6] Only in the course of the 19th century is it clearly used of German inns.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In German it first appeared in the names of inns, then became the general word for a fine inn, and was later set apart from Restauration and Restaurant as an inn with rooms for the night.^[2] Paul notes the older sense “private house” before the modern one, and the phrase schwimmendes Hotel “floating hotel” for a large passenger ship.^[7] Hotel garni meant at first a furnished flat and later a hotel serving only breakfast, and Hotelier appeared in the 19th century.^[7][3] The Duden dictionary dates Motel, from English motel, a blend of motor and hotel, to the middle of the 20th century.^[4] Hungarian hotel is recorded from 1831.^[8]

Timeline

• 1579 – First record, ostel episcopal, for a bishop's residence in France.^[6]
• 18th century – The word is borrowed into general use, spelled also Hotell.^[2][6]
• Late 18th century – Pfeifer's date for the borrowing, already with initial /h/.^[3]
• 19th century – Hotel is clearly used of German inns, and Hotelier is formed.^[6][3]
• 1831 – Hungarian hotel is recorded.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A hotel, a business offering rooms, usually with meals, to guests: Wir haben ein kleines Hotel am Hafen gebucht.^[9][1][10]
2. (historical) A residence or town palace, especially in France.^[9][6]

Word family

• Hotelier
• Hotel garni

Related words

• Hospital
• Motel
• English hotel

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 427
3. ^ a b c d e Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
4. ^ a b Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 380
5. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g Schulz, Hans; Basler, Otto, et al. (1913–1988), Deutsches Fremdwörterbuch, 7 vols., Strasbourg / Berlin: Trübner / De Gruyter; 2nd ed., ed. Gerhard Strauß et al. (1995–), Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; via OWID, Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache
7. ^ a b c Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
8. ^ a b Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
9. ^ a b Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
10. ^ Duden. Das Fremdwörterbuch (2007), 9th ed., Duden vol. 5, Mannheim: Dudenverlag