Etymologically
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hotel

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Pronunciation

Forms

hotel m (invariable)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French hôtel, from Old French ostel (“lodging, house”), recorded about 1050.[2][3][4][1] The Old French word continues Late Latin hospitale (“lodging for guests”), the neuter of Latin hospitālis (“of guests”), which DELI and Sabatini–Coletti trace to a phrase “cubiculum hospitale”, “room for guests”.[5][6][7] The Latin adjective is formed on hospes (“host; guest”).[1][8][6]

In French the word moved from “dwelling” to “private residence” and finally to “inn, hotel”.[5] The same Latin noun is the source of ospedale and of ostello, which Old Italian took earlier from the Old French word.[1][9][10] An Italianised spelling otello is also found.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT and Nocentini date the word to 1813, in Ugo Foscolo's translation of Laurence Sterne's Sentimental Journey:[3][2] “Monsieur Dessein, padrone dell'hôtel, era a' vespri” (“Monsieur Dessein, the master of the hotel, was at vespers”).[11] DELI's first record is 1883, and that of grand hotel 1890, in Emilio De Marchi.[5]

Semantic evolution

Italian also took the French sense “private mansion” for a time;[5] DELI records it in 1860.[5] The word spread quickly but was resisted as a foreign word: under Fascism it was first taxed (1925) and then replaced by law with albergo (1940), as Cardinal Giacomo Antonelli had already tried to do in papal Rome before 1876.[5][10]

Today hotel is an everyday synonym of albergo, common above all in the names of hotels.[3][6] French compounds came in with it, such as hôtel garni or hotel meublé, a hotel that offers rooms but no restaurant.[12][13] In the Italian spelling alphabet Hotel stands for the letter H.[1]

Timeline

  • About 1050 – Old French ostel is recorded.[3]
  • 1813 – Ugo Foscolo uses hôtel in his translation of Sterne.[3][2]
  • 1860 – The word is used for a private mansion.[5]
  • 1890 – Emilio De Marchi writes grand hotel.[5]
  • 1925 – The word is taxed as a foreign word.[5]
  • 1940 – Its replacement by albergo is made compulsory.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A hotel; an albergo: Abbiamo prenotato una camera in un hotel vicino alla stazione.[3][4][7]
  2. (spelling alphabet) The letter H.[1]

Usage notes

Hotel diffuso is a hotel whose rooms are spread over several buildings in a village or old town centre, and hotel a ore a hotel that rents rooms by the hour.[4] The word is pronounced /oˈtɛl/, without the h.[4][7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  3. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  4. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  7. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  10. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1901
  11. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. Supplemento 2004
  12. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  13. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli