he word "hotel" has a long linguistic
history that links it to hospital, host, hostage and maybe hostile.
Most of these words entered the English language in the 13th or
14th centuries, but hotel, which appeared in the 18th century, was
a latecomer.
"The Merriam-Webster New Book of Word Histories" says the word
host, meaning an innkeeper or entertainer of guests, is part of a
word batch including hospital, hotel, hostel, hospice and hostage
that derived from the Latin hospes, meaning either a guest or
person who entertains a guest.
The appearance of hostage with words relating to guests refers
to a time when individuals offered, or were forced, to live in an
enemy's court to guarantee that a promise would be kept. They were
guests of a special kind.
As for the word hostile, the book says it is related to host,
but only when host is defined as an army or a multitude. The source
word was the Latin hostis, which means foreigner, stranger or
enemy.
Here is a fun piece of trivia: My Webster's dictionary says
hospes evolved from hostis, thus linking hostile with all the words
above, including hotel. The "Word Histories" book, also a Webster's
publication, denies this link. So maybe hotel has a hostile
connection and maybe not.
Ted Kotzin, president of Space Age Travel in Torrance, Calif.,
brought these hotel word connections to my attention.
He understood from the dictionary that there is a tie between
the words denoting hospitality and the word hostile.
He said this link reflects a time when you didn't know if a
traveler was friend or foe. Sadly, he added, there are still times
when hoteliers treat travelers as if they might be foe.
The possible etymological link between hotel and hostile is
titillating, but Ted's plaint shouldn't be laughed off, too.
I haven't stopped juggling dictionaries yet. Here's more:
"Cruise," the verb, came to English in the 17th century from
the Dutch kruisen, a word meaning to cross; it ultimately finds its
roots in the Latin cruc or crux."Holiday" comes from the Middle English halidai, meaning holy
day. (Did you know there are no national holidays in the U.S.?
Congress determines holidays for the District of Columbia and
federal employees; the states do the rest.)"Vacation," new to English in the 14th century, came to us as
the Middle English vacacioun (don't you love that spelling?); from
the Latin vacatio, meaning freedom or exemption, and ultimately
from the verb form vacatus."Vacate" also derived from vacatus. That seems right. We always
knew that when a client says he wants a vacation, he is saying,
"I'm vacating" or, "I'm outta here."