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hotel

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /həʊˈtel/, US /hoʊˈtel/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French hôtel (“a mansion, palace, large house”),[2][3] the later form of Old French ostel, hostel “a lodging”,[2][4] from Medieval Latin hospitāle (“inn”),[5] from Latin hospes, the source of hospital.[6][2] The older French form was borrowed in the Middle Ages as hostel,[6][5] and hospital is a doublet of the same word.[5][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A public official residence, or a large private residence: the 1640s,[2] 1677 in Merriam-Webster;[3] for its first century the word was used only in French phrases and of the town mansions of French aristocrats.[6]

Semantic evolution

In 1748 hotel was also used of a student residence at a university, a sense now obsolete.[5][7] The modern sense, an inn of the better sort that provides lodging and meals for paying guests, is from 1765, first in Smollett's Travels Through France and Italy,[5][2][7] and has prevailed since the mid-18th century.[6] Meanwhile hostel became restricted to lodgings for particular groups, such as students or migrant workers.[6] French uses survive in phrases such as hôtel-Dieu, “a hospital” (1644), and hôtel particulier, “a town mansion”.[7] The verb, “to stay at a hotel”, is from 1883,[7] and hotelier is from 1905.[5] Hotel is also the communications code word for the letter H, from 1952.[8]

Timeline

  • 1640s – a large residence.[2]
  • 1644 – hôtel-Dieu, a hospital.[7]
  • 1748 – a university hostel.[5][7]
  • 1765 – an inn for travellers.[5][7]
  • 1883 – verb, to lodge at a hotel.[7]
  • 1905 – hotelier.[5]
  • 1952 – code word for H.[8]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A business that provides lodging and usually meals and other services for travellers and other paying guests.
  2. (France) A large town house or mansion; an official building.
  3. (Australia, New Zealand) A pub.
  4. A code word for the letter H in radio communication.

Word family

  • hoteldom
  • hotelless
  • boatel
  • botel
  • floatel
  • hotelkeeper
  • hotelman
  • motel

Usage notes

In Britain the word was formerly pronounced with a silent h, which led to the form an hotel.[1][7]

References

  1. ^ a b Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  6. ^ a b c d e Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster