hostel (n.)
early 13c., "inn, house of entertainment," from Old French ostel, hostel "house, home, dwelling; inn, lodgings, shelter" (11c., Modern French hôtel), from Medieval Latin hospitale "inn; large house" (see hospital). Obsolete after 16c., revived 1808, along with hostelry by Sir Walter Scott. Youth hostel is recorded by 1931.
Entries linking to hostel
mid-13c., "shelter for the needy," from Old French hospital, ospital "hostel, shelter, lodging" (Modern French hôpital), from Late Latin hospitale "guest-house, inn," noun use of neuter of Latin adjective hospitalis "of a guest or host" (as a noun, "a guest; the duties of hospitality"), from hospes (genitive hospitis) "guest; host;" see host (n.1).
The sense of "charitable institution to house and maintain the needy" in English is from early 15c.; the meaning "institution for sick or wounded people" is recorded by 1540s. The same word, contracted, is hostel and hotel. The sense shift in Latin from duties to buildings might have been via the common term cubiculum hospitalis "guest-chamber." The Latin adjective use continued in Old French, where ospital also could mean "hospitable" and ospitalite could mean "hospital."
late 14c. (as a surname from early 14c.), from Old French ostelerie, hostelerie "house, guest-house; kitchen; hospice, almshouse" (12c., Modern French hôtellerie), from hostel "house, home" (see hostel). Rare in modern English before Scott. Alternative hostry (from Old French hosterie, from hoste) was in use late 14c. through 18c. Tyndale, in Luke ii, has "There was no roome for them with in, in the hostrey" [1526].
Trends of hostel
More to Explore
updated on September 28, 2017