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bordello

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Etymology and origin of the Italian word bordello

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1200s mid-13th century, Ruggieri Apugliese (Siena) More words from the 12th century
Borrowed from
Old French bordel
Ultimate origin
Frankish *bord

Pronunciation

  • /borˈdɛl.lo/[1]

Forms

bordello m (plural bordelli)[1] Forms in the oldest texts include Old Italian bordelo, Old Italian bordiello, Old Italian burdello and Old Italian vordello.[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French bordel (“hut; brothel”), the diminutive of borde (“small hut”), from Frankish *bord (“board, plank”): a house made of planks.[3][4][5][6] Old Occitan had the same bordel, which Zingarelli and the GDLI give as the source.[7][8] In Old French the word meant “hut, house” before 1105 and “brothel” from about 1200.[3] Meyer-Lübke started from a Franco-Romance neuter plural *borda.[6] The LEI counts the Italian word, recorded in the vernaculars from the middle of the 13th century, among the borrowings from French.[9] Zaccaria noted that the simple noun is missing in Italian, while Medieval Latin bordellum (“hut”) is found in France and England in the 11th and 12th centuries.[10] The Frankish word is related to the English word board.[4]

V. Pisani proposed the same origin as bagordo, from Old French behordeis (“clash of lances, tournament”), starting from the sense of the phrase “to make a racket”;[3] DELI finds this hard to accept.[3]

The Old French word also gave Spanish burdel and Portuguese bordel.[6][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Sienese poet Ruggieri Apugliese, in the middle of the 13th century, and Brunetto Latini's Tesoretto has it about 1262: chi dispende in bordello / e va perdendo 'l giorno / in femine d'intorno “whoever spends in the brothel and wastes the day among women”.[2][9][12] The sense was “brothel”;[3] Medieval Latin bordellos is recorded at Bologna in 1288.[3]

Semantic evolution

Already in Old Italian the word could mean a place of corruption, as in Dante's Ahi serva Italia … non donna di provincie, ma bordello! “Ah, enslaved Italy … no mistress of provinces, but a brothel!”, and a much-frequented place.[2][13][14] In the Novellino the goddesses of knowledge appear to a philosopher “at the brothel”, because he had made learning common.[12] Bordelliere “frequenter of brothels” is in the 14th-century Ottimo commentary, and bordelliera “prostitute” in Aretino in 1536.[3]

As with its synonym casino, the sense went from “hut” to “brothel” and then to “din, confusion”.[4] Far bordello “to make a racket” is in Buonarroti the Younger.[15] In colloquial Italian today the word means a mess, a racket or a great quantity.[5][13][16]

English took bordello from Italian in 1598, beside the older bordel from French.[17][18]

Timeline

  • Mid-13th century – Ruggieri Apugliese uses bordello.[2]
  • c. 1262 – Brunetto Latini's Tesoretto has the word.[9]
  • 1288 – Medieval Latin bordellos is recorded at Bologna.[3]
  • 14th century – Bordelliere appears in the Ottimo commentary on Dante.[3]
  • 1536 – Aretino uses bordelliera “prostitute”.[3]
  • 1598 – English borrows the Italian form as bordello.[17][18]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A brothel; postribolo.[5][13][16][7]
  2. (figurative) A place of corruption and vice.[5][13][7]
  3. (figurative, colloquial) A place in great disorder; a mess: Questa cucina dopo la festa è un bordello.[5][13][16]
  4. (colloquial) Din, racket, uproar.[5][13][16]
  5. (colloquial) A great quantity: un bordello di macchine.[5][1][13]

Word family

  • bordelliere
  • bordellare
  • bordellesco

Usage notes

A rare Tuscan and Romagnol bordello “boy”, recorded from 1764, has a separate source: Latin burdus “mule” with the suffix -ello, through the sense “bastard”.[4][19] Prati preferred to connect it with Borda, the name of the Befana in some Emilian towns.[15]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  4. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  6. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  7. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  8. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  9. ^ a b c Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 1, 1140
  10. ^ Zaccaria, Enrico (1901), L'elemento germanico nella lingua italiana: lessico con appendice e prospetto cronologico, Bologna: Treves
  11. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  12. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 2, 310
  13. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  14. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
  15. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 162
  16. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  17. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
  18. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  19. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 563

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Bordello.” Etymologically, 10 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/it/bordello. Accessed 10 Nov. 2026.

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