hostelry Now arch.
(ˈhɒstəlrɪ)
Also 4–5 ostelrie, (h)ostellerie, -elerie, -ye, 4–6 ostlerye, -ie, 5 hostillary, 7 hostilerie, 4–7, 9 (arch.) hostelrie.
[a. OF. (h)ostelerie (12th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), mod.F. hôtellerie, f. (h)ostelier hosteler1: see -ery 3, -ry. The word is sparsely exemplified before the 19th c., when it was taken up by Scott, and thence became common as a literary form.]
1. A house where lodging and entertainment are provided; an inn, a hostel. Also, the place in a convent for the reception of strangers.
| c 1386 Chaucer Prol. 718 In Southwerk at this gentil hostelrye [v.r. ostelry, Petw. hostrye, Lansd. hosterie] That highte the Tabard. ― Knt.'s T. 1635 In the hostelryes [v. rr. ostelleryis, hostelleries, Lansd. hostries] al aboute. c 1430 Pilgr. Lyf Manhode iv. xxxii. (1869) 193 To þe ostelrye j wente at þe firste, thinking to herberwe me þere. 1597–8 Bp. Hall Sat. iii. i. 73 The under-groome of the ostlerie. 1630 B. Jonson New Inn ii. i, A bashful child, homely brought up, In a rude hostelrie. 1808 Scott Marm. iii. ii. note, The accommodations of a Scottish hostelrie, or inn, in the sixteenth century, may be collected from..the ‘Friars of Berwick’. 1823 ― Peveril xxi, Peveril entered the kitchen, which indeed was also the parlour and hall of the little hostelry. 1840 Dickens Old C. Shop xviii, Codlin diminished the distance between himself and the hostelry. 1886 Ruskin Præterita I. vi. 188 Dining at any nice village hostelry. |
2. Hostel business. nonce-use.
| 1855 Thackeray Newcomes I. x. 101 A gay sight was the road..in those days, before steam-engines arose and flung its hostelry and chivalry over. |
Hence ˈhostelric a. nonce-wd., pertaining to a hostelry or inn.
| 1860 All Year Round IV. 78 He looks at things in an eminently hostelric view. |