Etymologically
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hostel

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈhɒstəl/[1]
  • US: /ˈhɑstəl/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English hostel, also ostel,[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French hostel, also ostel,[5][6][3] from Medieval Latin hospitāle (“inn, large house, hospice”).[6][3][7][8] The Old French word, recorded from the 11th century, meant house, home, dwelling, inn and lodging;[6] it became French hôtel,[5][9][6] and has parallels in Old Occitan ostal and Spanish hostal.[5] The Anglo-Norman form ostel is recorded from the early 12th century for lodgings, an inn or a house.[10] The Latin noun is also the source of hospital and, through Modern French, of hotel; the forms diverged in Old French.[11][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A place to stay; the house where one lodges: before 1325, in the Genesis and Exodus (composed about 1250), where Laban gives Eliezer good hostel.[5][2] Barnhart dates the word to about 1250, and finds it earlier as the surname Ostel (1232);[3] Etymonline gives the early 13th century.[6]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word meant both lodging or entertainment and the place where one lodged, as in taken hostel, to put up somewhere;[2][5] from about 1384, in Chaucer, it was also a public inn.[5][9] In 1536 it was first used of a house of residence for students,[5][9] and between 1587 and 1670 also of a town mansion, a sense later taken by hotel.[5][8] Etymonline says the word fell out of use after the 16th century and was revived, together with hostelry, by Sir Walter Scott in 1808;[6][12] it was then used in an archaic way for an old inn.[8] In the 20th century it was narrowed to supervised, inexpensive lodging for particular groups, such as students, workers, the homeless and young travellers:[13][14] youth hostel is recorded by 1929 in Etymonline, and the short hostel for one from 1931.[6][5] The verb, to lodge, dates from about 1330 and survives in English dialect,[5][15] and in the mid 20th century a new verb meant to travel staying at youth hostels.[8][15]

Timeline

  • 1232 – the surname Ostel.[3]
  • c. 1250 – a place to stay, a lodging (obsolete by 1500).[5][3]
  • 1303 – lodging, entertainment, as in to take hostel, to put up.[5]
  • c. 1330 – verb, to lodge, put up.[5]
  • c. 1384 – a public inn for travellers, in Chaucer's House of Fame.[5]
  • 1536 – a residence for university students.[5][9]
  • 1587 – a town mansion (obsolete by 1670).[5]
  • 1808 – revived by Sir Walter Scott.[6]
  • 1929 – youth hostel.[6]
  • 1931 – hostel alone for a youth hostel.[5]
  • mid 20th century – verb, to stay at youth hostels.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A building with cheap, supervised lodging for travellers, especially a youth hostel: They spent a week walking the coast, sleeping in hostels.[15][14][5]
  2. A building giving overnight shelter to people in need, such as the homeless.[14]
  3. (chiefly British) A residence run by an institution for a particular group, such as students, nurses or workers; a dormitory.[14][15][5]
  4. A home for the elderly or the chronically ill, or living quarters for newly arrived immigrants.[15]
  5. (archaic) An inn; a hostelry.[14][8][5]
  6. (obsolete, 1587–1670) A town mansion.[5][8]

Verb

  1. To travel, usually on foot or by bicycle, staying overnight at hostels.[15][8]
  2. (dialect) To lodge.[15][5]

Word family

  • hostelry
  • youth hostel

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c 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)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  11. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  13. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  14. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  15. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster