hostal

Forms

hostal m (plural hostales)^[1] Old Spanish wrote both ostal and hostal.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish ostal, borrowed from Old Occitan ostal (“house, dwelling”), from Late Latin hospitāle (“lodging, guest house”), the noun use of Latin hospitālis (“of a guest or host; hospitable”), from hospes (“host, guest”).^[1][3][4] DICCA-XV also takes the word from Old Occitan, and reports Corominas's dating to 1200–1225.^[3] The DLE gives only the Latin adjective as its source, and the Academy's dictionaries of 1884 and 1899 derived it from hoste.^[5][6][7]

The same Latin noun is Catalan hostal, Old French ostel, today French hôtel, and Italian ospedale;^[4][1] Italian ostello was taken from the Old French word.^[4][1] Spanish has two doublets of it: the learned hospital, from 1154, and hotel, taken from French in 1855.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DEMel's earliest record is the Fuero de San Sebastián of about 1180.^[9] In the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca (c. 1215, known from a 14th-century copy) sin en todos omnes priso ostales “took up lodging in all men”.^[2] The first record in a document without a later copy is a royal privilege of 1255 that assigns sixty maravedís to el mayordomo del hostal, beside the stewards of the infirmary and of the almoner.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Old Spanish the word meant a dwelling or abode in general: in Berceo serpents and snakes have their ostal in a thicket, and in Toledo few stayed en su ostal “at home” instead of going to Mass; in the Libro de Alexandre the wedding guests mantenién el ostal “kept the household”.^[2] The word later fell out of use in Castile: Autoridades defines it as the same as hostería and notes that it was little used except in Catalonia.^[10] The Academy's dictionaries of the 19th century keep that definition, and Domínguez (1846) records two obsolete senses, the price paid for one's expenses at an inn and the fee foreign merchants paid for the shops where they kept their goods at fairs.^[11][12][13]

Today a hostal is a lodging establishment of a lower category than a hotel, smaller and with fewer services.^[5][14][15]

Timeline

• c. 1180 – the Fuero de San Sebastián has hostal.^[9]
• c. 1215 – the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca (in a 14th-century copy) has ostales.^[2]
• c. 1230–1252 – Berceo uses ostal for a dwelling.^[2]
• 1255 – a royal privilege names el mayordomo del hostal, the first record without a later copy.^[2]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades says the word is little used outside Catalonia.^[10]
• 1846 – Domínguez records it as obsolete, with two senses for charges at inns and fairs.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from hoste.^[6]
• 1917 – Alemany derives it from Latin hospitale.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A lodging establishment of a lower category than a hotel; a hostel, a modest guesthouse: Dormimos en un hostal barato junto al puerto.^[5][1][14]
2. (dated) An inn; the same as hostería.^[17][12]

Word family

• hostalero

Related words

• huésped
• hospital
• hotel
• hostería
• hospedar
• Catalan hostal

Usage notes

The word often forms part of the proper name of such an establishment.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE
3. ^ a b Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv
4. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. hospitale
5. ^ a b c Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. hostal
6. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 577
7. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía
8. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. huésped
9. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 183
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra
13. ^ a b Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 967
14. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos
15. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial
16. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 917
17. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. hostal