▪ I. ˈhostler
Forms: 4–5 hosteler (-eller, -iler, -iller), 5– hostler. See also ostler.
[A syncopated form of hosteler, found also in the sense ‘keeper of a hostelry, innkeeper’ (hosteler 2), but from 16th c. usually appropriated as below; in this popular sense it has always varied with the form ostler (ˈɒslə(r)), now more prevalent. The Shakespeare Folio of 1621 has hostler once, ostler six times.
As a variant spelling of ostler, ordinarily pronounced like the latter, with h and t mute; but, if used in the sense of hosteler, both letters would now usually be sounded.]
A man who attends to horses at an inn; a stableman, a groom.
| c 1386 Chaucer Pars. T. ¶366 Thilke that holden hostelries, sustenynge the thefte of hire hostilers [v.rr. hostelers, hostelleris, ostelers, ostilers]. c 1400 Three Kings Cologne 23 Þis was a comune custome to diuers hostlers..to bring her hors to þat plaas. c 1485 Digby Myst. (1882) ii. 85 How, hosteler, how, a peck of otys and a botell of haye. 1570 Levins Manip. 73/46 Hostler, caupo, stabularius. 1651 C. Walker Hist. Independ. iii. 10 To make Religion but a stalking horse..and the Ministers thereof but hostlers, to rub down, curry and dresse it for their riding. a 1713 T. Ellwood Autobiog. (1756) 20 Having ordered the Horstler to take Care of my Dog. 1837 Hawthorne Twice-Told T. (1851) II. x. 139 The landlord himself, or his loutish hostler. 1848 Dickens Dombey vii, Where hostlers were continually accompanying themselves with effervescent noises. |
b. U.S. (See quot.)
| 1890 Cooley, etc. Railw. Amer. 232 The compartments in the round-houses for sheltering locomotives are termed the stalls, and the keeper of the round-house is called the hostler. |
Hence ˈhostlership, the function of a hostler, or the discharge of such function.
| 1626 W. Sclater Exp. 2 Thess. (1629) 123 To hold his stirrop, and beare the checke for ill hostlership. |
▪ II. hostler, hostleress
see hosteler.