Etymologically
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bordellum

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [bɔrˈdɛl.lũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [borˈdɛl.lum][1]

Forms

bordellum n (genitive bordellī); second declension[1] Medieval spellings include bordelum and burdellum.[2][3][4]

Etymology

Niermeyer and Wiktionary explain it as a diminutive, from Latin borda (“cottage, hut”) + -ellus.[2][1] That noun goes back to Frankish *bord (“board”),[1][5] and Etymonline describes Old French borde as a hut made of planks.[5] The DMLBS and the MLW connect it instead with Old French bordel, the Old French diminutive of the same Germanic word, which the medieval Latin form may simply render.[6][4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first British record is in a terrier of Evesham Abbey of about 1100, for Badby in Northamptonshire, where a tenant holds a hide and a virgate and one bordellum of the demesne: here it is a cottage with a small holding of land.[6] Köbler dates its first use from Latham to before 1128.[3]

Semantic evolution

Niermeyer gives three senses in order: the holding of a bordar (a cottager), a small hut or cabin, and a brothel.[2] The last is the one that lasted.[4][6] A twelfth-century St Gall manuscript of a commentary on Horace's Satires uses it of a brothel,[4] and English church visitations and court rolls of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries charge women with keeping a common burdellum or bordellum in their houses.[6] The Lexicon Bohemorum records it, figuratively, for a brothel.[7]

The Romance words for a brothel continue it or its Old French counterpart: Old French bordel, Occitan and Catalan bordell, Italian bordello, with Spanish burdel borrowed from Catalan.[1] English took bordel from Old French about 1300 and later bordello from Italian.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 1100 – An Evesham terrier uses it of a cottager's holding at Badby.[6]
  • before 1128 – Köbler's earliest date, from Latham.[3]
  • 12th century – A St Gall commentary on Horace uses it of a brothel.[4]
  • c. 1300 – English borrows bordel from Old French.[5]
  • 1397 – A Hereford visitation charges a woman with keeping a common brothel.[6]
  • 1590s – English takes bordello from Italian.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (Medieval Latin) The holding of a bordar; a cottage with a small holding of land.[2][6]
  2. (Medieval Latin) A small house; a hut or cabin.[2][1]
  3. (Medieval Latin) A brothel.[2][4][6][1]
  • bordum
  • English bordello
  • English bordel

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 Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  3. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ a b c d e f Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Latinitatis medii aevi lexicon Bohemorum / Slovník středověké latiny v českých zemích (1977–), Prague: Academia; electronic version, Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences