† ˈbordel Obs.
Forms: 4–9 bordel, (4 ? bordeal), 5–7 bordell, 5 bordele, bourdel(l, bordyl(le, burdell, 6 Sc. bo(i)rdall, 8 bourdel.
[a. OF. bordel ‘cabin, hut, brothel’, corresp. to Pr. bordel, Sp. burdel, It. bordello, med.L. bordellus, -um, dim. of late L. borda (? or of *bordum): see bordar. (Now superseded by brothel, which has no etymological connexion with it.)]
1. A house of prostitution, a brothel.
| c 1305 St. Lucy 92 in E.E.P. (1862) 104 Oþer to comun bordel beo ilad oþer ibore. c 1386 Chaucer Pars. T. ¶811 Harlottis, that haunten bordels of these foule wommen. 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 84/2, I wente to the bourdel. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. III. 276 Semdill in the kirk and richt oft in the bordell. c 1620 Z. Boyd Zion's Flowers (1855) 79 To make a Bordell of my Masters house. a 1722 S. Centlivre Marplot iii. i. 153 Egad, maybe it is some private Bourdel. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth viii, As if they were in a bordel at Paris. 1850 Carlyle Latter-d. Pamph. viii, That this universe..was a Cookery-shop and Bordel. |
b. Prostitution, fornication. [Cf. OF. faire bordel de.]
| 1382 Wyclif Lev. xix. 29 Ne putt thow thi douȝter to bordel. 1393 Gower Conf. II. 162 All his rent In wine and bordel he despent. c 1440 Gesta Rom. (1879) 220. |
2. A worthless fellow, a good-for-nothing. (Erroneously used for brothel 1, as on the other hand brothel has taken the place of bordel in sense 1.)
| 1474 Caxton Chesse 104 He drof and chased out of the hoost moo than two thousand bourdellys. |
3. attrib. and Comb., as bordel woman, bordel house.
| 1382 Wyclif Baruch vi. 11 Of it thei ȝeuen to pute in bordel house, and ournen hooris. c 1386 Chaucer Pars. T. ¶902 Commune bordeal womman. 1480 Caxton Chron. Eng. cxcvii. 175 Holy chirche tho had no more reuerence than it had ben a bordelhows. 1541 Elyot Image Govt. (1549) 6 In common baines and bordell houses. |
¶ Chatterton (misled by Kersey: cf. Phillips 1706) took bordel in the OF. sense of ‘cot’.
| a 1780 Chatterton Wks. (ed. Skeat) I. 203 Would'st thou ken Nature in her better part? Goe, searche the logges and bordels of the hynde. |