motel

Etymology

It is a blend from English motor + hotel.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} Barnhart and Etymonline cite the magazine “Hotel Monthly” of March 1925, which reported a plan for a chain of “motor hotels” between San Diego and Seattle to be called "Motel", and Barnhart notes that “motor hotel” appears in the same citation.^[5][6] According to Hendrickson, many sources credit the motor-lodge owner Oscar T. Tomerlin with the coinage in 1930, but Doris E. King traced it to a San Luis Obispo establishment of 1925 that called itself a “Mot-el Inn”.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A roadside hotel for motorists: the OED's first example is from the Los Angeles Times of 18 January 1925.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline describes the motel as at first a hotel for people travelling by car.^[6] The word has kept its meaning: a hotel where the rooms open onto a parking area, usually in low blocks along a highway.^[2][4][9] The verb to motel, to stay at motels, is recorded from 1959 in the OED's first edition, but only from 1961 in its revised entry,^[10][2] and the Shorter Oxford records motelier, the owner of a motel, from the mid 20th century.^[11]

Timeline

• 1925 – a roadside hotel for motorists.^[2][5][4]
• 1961 – verb, to stay at motels (OED 1989: 1959).^[2][10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A hotel for motorists, usually by a main road, where the rooms open directly onto a parking area: We stopped for the night at a motel outside town.^[4][9][2]

Verb

1. (rare) To stay at a motel, or travel staying at motels.^[2]

Related words

• motor
• hotel

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Hendrickson, Robert (2008), The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, 4th ed., New York: Facts on File
9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press