brothel

Etymology

It is formed from Middle English brothen (“ruined, degenerate”) + -el.^[2][3][4][5] brothen was the past participle of brethen (“to go to ruin, waste away”),^[4][6] from Old English brēoþan (“to deteriorate, degenerate”),^[2][7][8][9] also ābrēoþan, with the past participle ābroþen (“degenerate, base”).^[10][8][11] Etymonline traces the verb to Proto-Germanic *breuþaną (“to be broken up”), related to *breutaną (“to break”) and so to brittle;^[7][12] Hoad and the Shorter Oxford call the Old English verb of unknown origin.^[8][9] Merriam-Webster compares Old High German brōdi (“frail”).^[4] The sense of a house of prostitution comes from the compound brothel-house, shortened in the late 16th century and confused with the unrelated bordel,^{[2][7][8][3][13]} which is Old French bordel, a diminutive of borde (“hut”), of Germanic origin.^[14][15]

Earliest recorded meaning

A worthless or contemptible person, a good-for-nothing or scoundrel: about 1390, in a manuscript of Piers Plowman (A-text, composed before 1376): For nou is vche Boye, Bold Broþel.^[2][10] Barnhart dates this sense to 1376, in Piers Plowman,^[3] and Ayto quotes Gower's Confessio Amantis (1393), where Ahab calls the prophet Micaiah a brothel.^[13][16]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word was a term of abuse for a vile person of either sex,^[7][15] and the MED also records it figuratively for a vice or sin.^[10] From the mid-15th century it was applied to a prostitute, a change the OED thinks was partly due to the influence of bordel, a house of prostitution.^[2][13] The compound brothel-house then led, by the late 16th century, to brothel alone in the sense of the house;^[13][7][8] the OED's first quotation is from Henry Smith, before 1591.^[2] The new sense replaced bordel,^[8][9] and the person senses died out in the 16th and early 17th centuries.^[2][9] A rare verb, to visit prostitutes, was used from 1600 to 1621.^[2] In Australian English a brothel is also, informally, any very untidy place or room, recorded from 1922.^[17][18]

Timeline

• c. 1390 – a worthless or contemptible person (obsolete by 1532).^[2][10]
• c. 1450 – a prostitute (obsolete by 1606).^[2] Barnhart dates this sense to 1493.^[3]
• before 1591 – a house where prostitutes work.^[2][3]
• 1600 – verb, to visit prostitutes (obsolete by 1621).^[2]
• 1604 – a brothel keeper (obsolete).^[2]
• 1922 – Australian, an untidy place.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. A house or other place where prostitutes have sex with clients for payment; a bordello.^[18][4][2]
2. (Australian, informal) Any very untidy or messy place: His bedroom was a brothel.^[18][17]
3. (obsolete) A worthless or contemptible person; a scoundrel.^{[2][9][4][10]}
4. (obsolete) A prostitute.^[2][9][4]

Word family

• brothellike

Related words

• bordel
• bordello
• brittle

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e f Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
11. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
12. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
13. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
14. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
15. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
16. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
17. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
18. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins