hosteler Now arch. or Hist., exc. in sense 4 b.
(ˈhɒstələ(r))
Forms: α. 3–5 (9) hostiler, 4– hosteler, (4 hostyller, 4–5 hostilere, -ellere, 5–6 -iller, -elere, 5–6 (9) -illar, 6 (9) -elar, 7 (9) -eller; also 5–8 hostler. β. 4–5 ostiler, 4–6 osteler, 5–6 -ere, 5–7 ostler, 6 ostleir, 7 Sc. oistlar.
[a. OF. ostelier (12th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), hostelier, mod.F. hôtelier, f. hostel: see -er. Cf. med.L. hospitā lārius, hostalārius, hostel(l)ārius. See also hostler, ostler, variants of this word.]
† 1. One who receives, lodges, or entertains guests and strangers; spec., in a monastery or religious house, one whose office was to attend to guests and strangers. Obs. exc. Hist.
| c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 361/61 Þe Abbot sende him out to one of heore celles; hostiler he was þare i-mad gistes to onder-fongue. c 1430 Pilgr. Lyf Manhode i. lxi. (1869) 37, I am norishe of orphanynes, osteleer of pilgrimes. 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 149 b/2 Thabbot..sente hym..to be hosteler for to receyue there ghestes. 1877 J. Raine in Smith & Wace Dict. Chr. Biog. I. 725 In this establishment Cuthbert was the hostillar. 1897 J. W. Clark Priory Barnwell p. lii, It was the duty of the Hosteller..to entertain the guests who sought the hospitality of the monastery. |
2. A keeper of a hostelry or inn; an innkeeper. arch.
| 1365 Munim. Gildh. Lond. (Rolls) III. 422 Ricardus le Yonge, hostyller. 1388 Wyclif Luke x. 35 He brouȝte forth twey pans, and ȝaf to the ostiler. c 1440 York Myst. xlvii. heading, The Osteleres. Alias Inholders. 1531 Dial. on Laws Eng. ii. xlii. (1638) 138 If a man desire to lodge with one that is no common Hosteler. 1592 Nashe P. Penilesse (ed. 2) 5 a, An Hostler that had built a goodly Inne. a 1635 Corbet Iter Bor. 174 The inne-keeper was old, fourescore allmost..God and Time decree To honour thrifty ostlers, such as hee. a 1670 Spalding Troub. Chas. I (1829) 12 [They] crossed the water, and breakfasted in William Stewart's, ostler. 1862 J. Grant Capt. of Guard xxv, Gray had been repeatedly warned by the friendly hosteller..to beware of travelling in the dusk. |
3. A stableman: see hostler, ostler.
4. † a. A student who lives in a hostel (sense 3). Obs.
| 1577 Harrison England ii. iii. (1877) i. 87 The students also that remaine in them, are called hostelers or halliers. Hereof it came of late to passe, that..Thomas late arch⁓bishop of Canturburie, being brought vp at such an house at Cambridge, was of the ignorant sort of Londoners called an ‘hosteler’, supposing that he had serued..in the stable. 1655 Fuller Hist. Camb. 29 We infer them to be no Collegiates, but Hostelers, not in that sense which the spitefull Papists charged Dr. Cranmer to be one (an attendant on a stable), but such as lived in a learned Inn or Hostle not endowed with revenues. |
b. A youth hosteller: see hostel n.1 2 b.
5. attrib., as hosteler-house [= OF. maison hosteliere; cf. med.L. hospitālāria (sc. domus) hostelry]; hosteler-wife, the mistress of an inn.
| c 1470 Henry Wallace iii. 71 A trew Scot, quhilk hosteler house thair held. 1820 Scott Abbot xviii, The hostler-wives,..are like to be the only losers by their miscarriage. |
Hence ˈhosteleress, a female student in a hostel.
| 1850 Fraser's Mag. XLII. 251 The female college, with its professoresses and hostleresses, and other Utopian monsters. |