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Added 9 October 2026

hostel

/ˈhɑstəl/ noun

Latin root: hospitale Wiktionary

noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about hostel at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

A hotel providing overnight lodging for travelers.
Inexpensive supervised lodging (especially for youths on bicycling trips).

Origin

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).

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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