hostel

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A cheap place to stay where you share rooms and facilities with other travellers.

   We booked a bed in a youth hostel near the station.

2. 2
   noun

   A place that gives a bed, and sometimes food, to homeless people.

   The charity runs a hostel for people sleeping on the streets.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Hostel entered English from French in the Middle Ages with the broad meaning “a place to stay” and could also denote an inn. It derives ultimately from Latin hospis, meaning “host” or “guest”; its meaning later narrowed to accommodation for particular groups, such as students or migrant workers.

From Middle English hostel, from Old French hostel, ostel, from Late Latin hospitale (“hospice”), from Classical Latin hospitalis (“hospitable”) itself from hospes (“host”) + -alis (“-al”). Doublet of hotel and hospital. Not in use from late 17th c. (in the usual sense from mid 16th c.) to 1808, when it was revived by Walter Scott in his poem Marmion (see the quotation).

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