hotel, n.
(həʊˈtɛl, old-fashioned əʊˈtɛl)
[a. F. hôtel, later form of hostel (see hostel n.1).]
1. (In French use.) a. A large private residence, a town mansion. ‖ b. A public official residence, hôtel de ville, the mansion house of a maire, a town hall. ‖ c. hôtel-Dieu, a hospital.
| 1644 Evelyn Diary 4 Feb., Above all is the Hôtel Dieu for men and women, near Notre Dame. 1684 tr. Tavernier's Grd. Seignor's Serag. 36 (Stanf.) Ceremonies of their march from the Hôtel, or great House of Perra. 1744 M. W. Montagu Let. 12 June (1966) II. 331 Here [sc. in Avignon] are 2 Consuls chose every year..and there is as much struggling for that Dignity in the Hotel de ville as in the Senate. 1746 in Acc. Fr. Settlem. N. Amer. 24 The Hotel Dieu, or hospital, of Quebec has two great halls. 1749 Chesterfield Lett. (1792) II. cxcix. 249, I hope I have domesticated you at his hotel there. 1768 Sterne Sent. Journ. (1778) II. 48 (Versailles), I bid Le Fleur..enquire for the Count's hotel. 1789 A. Young Jrnl. 30 July in Trav. France (1792) I. 149 Two bourgeois musketeers conducted me to the hotel de ville. 1797 Encycl. Brit. VIII. 683/1 The hotel de ville is what we call a town-house or town-hall. 1827 Scott Chron. Canongate Introd. vi, She inhabited, when in Edinburgh..one of those old hotels. 1841 C'tess Blessington Idler in France I. 4 It was then given to a certain Pierre Boys, in exchange for a piece of ground to erect a new hôtel-de-ville. 1846 Dickens Pictures from Italy 9 Sometimes an hotel de ville, sometimes a guard-house. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 356 A few great men still retained their hereditary hotels between the Strand and the river. 1858 Hawthorne Fr. & It. Jrnls. (1883) 35 We stood a few moments on the steps of the Hôtel Dieu. 1957 J. S. Bromley in Wallace-Hadrill & McManners France: Govt. & Society 147 Louis XIV made his first formal visit to the Hôtel de Ville, in 1687, to ‘forgive’ the City [of Paris] for its share in the Fronde. 1973 Times 22 Feb. 5/1 M Louis Pradel..dominates the hôtel de ville. |
d. hôtel garni, a furnished apartment; an hotel or boarding-house supplying breakfast.
| 1774 H. Walpole Let. 7 Sept. (1857) VI. 114, I now live in dread of my biennial gout, and should die of it in an hôtel garni. Ibid. 28 Sept. 126 Take care of your papers at Paris,..In the hôtels garnis they have double keys to every lock. 1858 Geo. Eliot Let. 17 Apr. (1954) II. 450 He took us to two Hôtels Garnis—places where you get lodgings and attendance and coffee and nothing else. 1896 E. Dowson Let. c. 12 Jan. (1967) 339, I have just risen from a bed of sickness, incomparably uncomfortable, as in my hotel garni, one is reduced under such circumstances to living entirely on milk the only nourishment that one can procure. 1968 Guardian 28 Dec. 5/5 The cheapest alternative to le camping..is the hotel garni, providing only bed and breakfast. |
e. hôtel particulier, a large privately owned town house or block of flats.
| 1934 Joyce Let. 13 July (1966) III. 309 Right opposite is a hotel particulier of 2 storeys. 1964 Time Off in Paris (Observer) 16 The big Haussman-period blocks of flats (hotels particuliers), that are still the main form of housing in central Paris, were built each to contain different social strata, and so they still do today. 1969 N. Freeling Tsing-Boum xx. 144 There were still some hôtels particuliers, last bastions of privilege. 1970 Times 28 Nov. 12/5 Their hotel particulier in Paris contains countless treasures. |
† 2. A
hostel in a university.
Obs.| 1748 Salmon Comp. through Univ. 18 Hugh de Balsham..purchased two Halls or Hotels near St. Peter's Church. |
3. A house for the entertainment of strangers and travellers, an inn;
esp. one that is, or claims to be, of a superior kind.
| 1765 Smollett Trav. xxxix. (1766) II. 235 The expence of living at an hotel is enormous. 1775 Ash, Hostel, an inn, an hotel. 1776 R. King in Life & Corr. (1894) I. 20 By a Gentlemen who lately came out of Boston I was informed that they have two bake houses constantly employed in baking for their hotels. 1783 Let. in H. Arnot Hist. Edinburgh App. 512 In 1763 there was no such place as an Hotel: the word indeed was not known, or only intelligible to French scholars. 1806–7 J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) xiv. i, Groping your way to the inn—(I beg pardon—hotel). 1817 Walker, Hostel, Hotel, a genteel inn: this word is now universally pronounced and written without the s. 1834 Medwin Angler in Wales II. 118, I..returned slowly..to my hotel. |
4. attrib. and
Comb. hotel-bill,
hotel bus,
hotel clerk,
hotel garage,
hotel-keeper,
hotel-keeping,
hotel lobby,
hotel manager,
hotel omnibus,
hotel porter,
hotel prowler,
hotel register,
hotel room,
hotel tout.
| 1872 Geo. Eliot Middlem. IV. vii. lxx. 123 Raffles's pockets..were sure to carry..*hotel-bills of the places he had stopped in. 1903 Joyce Let. 26 Feb. (1966) II. 31, I was favoured with my hotel-bill on Tuesday. 1973 P. Audemars Delicate Dust of Death xii. 175 The 10 per cent surcharge would have been added to the hotel bill. |
| 1878 Harper's Mag. Jan. 194 The traveller reaches his stopping-place by *hotel 'bus, carriage, or by the democratic street cars. 1923 E. F. Wyatt Invis. Gods iv. iii. 221 He was marshalling them all toward a hotel bus. |
| 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. (U.S.), *Hotel-car, one arranged for affording meals to passengers on board while on a journey. |
| 1856 F. L. Olmsted Journey Slave States (1861) V. 333 An easy and gentleman-like employment as that of *hotel-clerk and bar-keeper. 1945 L. R. Tryon Poor Man's Doctor 185, I suppose the actor is better trained than most of us at inventing stratagems for getting past the hard and watchful eyes of hotel clerks. |
| 1910 Bradshaw's Railway Guide Apr. 1101 Best *Hotel Garage in London. |
| 1829 Virginia Lit. Museum 336/1 The Proctor is required to make a monthly report..of any matters relating to the students or *hotel-keepers which may be worthy of being noticed. 1869 W. H. H. Murray Adventures in Wilderness 35 The ‘hotel guides’ are paid so much per month by the hotel-keepers. 1879 Scribner's Monthly June 242/1 Her husband had left town suddenly on a horse belonging to the hotel-keeper. 1916 Joyce Portrait of Artist (1969) i. 29 He..began to speak with the voice of the hotelkeeper. |
| 1870 ‘F. Fern’ Ginger-Snaps 247 Having then left what, in my opinion, is the perfection of *hotel-keeping. 1959 News Chron. 19 Aug. 6/2 French small hotel-keeping at its most terrible. |
| 1912 M. Nicholson Hoosier Chron. 182 A number of idlers in the *hotel lobby regarded him with a new interest. 1964 M. McLuhan Understanding Media (1967) ii. xxxi. 341 Shoddy match-wood bars and hotel lobbies. |
| 1910 W. J. Locke Simon xv. 199 The correctly attired *hotel manager in the attitude in which he habitually surveyed the lay-out of the table d'hôte. 1972 I. Hamilton Thrill Machine viii. 34 The hotel manager led her and her group towards the lift. |
| 1878 R. L. Stevenson Inland Voyage 37 The driver of the *hotel omnibus. 1910 Bradshaw's Railway Guide Apr. 1049 The Hotel omnibus meets the principal London trains. |
| 1847 F. A. Kemble Let. 31 May in Rec. Later Life (1882) III. 190, I..despatched one of the *hotel porters thither to hunt for her. 1881 Lady C. Schreiber Jrnl. (1911) II. 343 The officious Hotel porter had told a lot of other people. 1968 Guardian 11 Apr. 5/2 Now we are going to set off along the A 10—the hotel porter will direct you to it. |
| 1928 M. C. Sharpe Chicago May 286 *Hotel Prowlers, sneak thieves. 1962 K. Orvis Damned & Destroyed v. 40 Hotel-prowlers and house-prowlers. |
| 1860 in Abraham Lincoln Q. (1949) Mar. 262, I found the name of Mr Bates on the *hotel register. 1899 E. Wharton Greater Inclination iv. 99 She must take her place in the hotel register as Mrs. Garnett. 1971 P. M. Hubbard High Tide i. 10 The hotel register still lay open on the desk where I had signed it. |
| 1946 E. O'Neill Iceman Cometh (1947) iv. 202 You know how it is, traveling around. The damned *hotel rooms. 1972 R. Lockridge Something up Sleeve i. 13 The jurors had been escorted back to their hotel rooms. |
| 1858 Hawthorne Fr. & It. Jrnls. (1872) I. 47 A crowd of cab-drivers, *hotel-runners, and commissionaires. |
| 1837 H. Martineau Soc. Amer. III. 89 The celerity at *hotel-tables is remarkable. |
| 1881 *Hotel tout [see tout n.1 2]. 1922 S. Leslie Oppidan i. 7 He had picked them up at the station like a hotel-tout. |
Hence
hoˈtel v., to put up or lodge at an hotel (
intr. and trans.; also
to hotel it).
hoˈtelhood, the state of an hotel.
hoˈtelify,
hoˈtelize vbs., trans. to make into, or like, an hotel; also
intr. for pass. hoˈtelless a., without an hotel.
hoˈtellish a., like an hotel.
hoˈtelward adv., towards the hotel. (All more or less
nonce-wds.)
| 1883 Burton & Cameron Gold Coast I. ii. 49, I was *hotelled at the ‘Royal Edinburgh’. 1894 Howells in Cosmopolitan XVII. 52 We tried hotelling it. |
| 1834 Blackw. Mag. XXXV. 178 It was, for lack of a better word, to coin one, *hotelified. |
| 1886 H. Merivale in Temple Bar Mag. LXXVI. 551 A fine old palace of the kind which *hotelize so well. |
| 1891 Sat. Rev. 29 Aug. 244/2 Most of the smaller towns were *hotelless. |
| 1851 Newland The Erne 252 Rooms..of a towny and *hotellish character. |