ostler
(ˈɒslə(r))
Forms: (4–9 see hosteler); 5 osteler, -eller, -iler, -elere, -elore, 6– ostler, (7 oastler).
[A phonetic spelling of hosteler, hostler, representing the historical pronunciation with h mute. In earlier times it was frequent also in the sense ‘keeper of a hostelry’ (see hosteler 2); but since 16th c. has been restricted generally to the following sense, in which it is also (now less frequently) spelt hostler, q.v. In the 1st Fol. of Shakes. ostler appears six times, hostler once, but the latter was more frequent in 18th c.]
A man who attends to horses at an inn; a stableman, a groom.
| [c 1386 ostelers, ostilers: see hostler, 15th c. v.rr.] c 1449 Pecock Repr. v. vii. 521 Stabiling,..beddis, seruicis of the ostiler. 1467 Mann. & Househ. Exp. (Roxb.) 417 My mastyr paid to the osteler of the Tabard..vij.s. viij.d. 1486 Bk. St. Albans F vj b, A Laughtre of Ostelores. 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, ii. i. 105 Bid the Ostler bring the Gelding out of the stable. 1630 Wadsworth Pilgr. vi. 57 [He] supplyed the place of an Oastler in pulling of my bootes. 1784 Johnson in Boswell 15 May, If Burke should go into a stable..the ostler would say, ‘We have had an extraordinary man here’. 1860 R. Sullivan Spelling Book Superseded (ed. 66), Ostler, Hostler, the man who takes care of horses at a..hotel or inn. 1861 Geo. Eliot Silas M. ix. 63 Let him turn ostler, and keep himself. |
b. attrib., as ostler-boy. (ostler ale = hostel ale; ostler-wife = hosteler-wife.)
| 1715 Ramsay Christ's Kirk Gr. ii. xi, The ostler wife brought ben good ale. 1861 C. Innes Sk. Early Scotch Hist. iii. 376 The chief drink of the castle, where ale was distinguished as ostler ale, household ale, and best ale. 1864 Times 22 Nov., The cabin-boy might become the leader of armies, and the ostler-boy sit in the Senate Chamber. |
c. Comb., as ostler-wise adv., after the manner of an ostler.
| 1846 Mrs. Gore Eng. Char. (1852) 117 While rubbing down ostler-wise his master's counter. |
Hence ˈostlering vbl. n., the occupation or exercise of the calling of an ostler.
| 1857 Borrow Romany Rye (1858) I. 344 At the end of perhaps forty years ostlering. |