Skip to content
ARCHIEENGLISH
LearnPlayWordsRanking
  • Learn
  • Play
  • Words
  • Ranking
  • Mine
← Vocabulary

hostelry

UK/ˈhɒstəlɹi/US/ˈhɑstəlɹi/
nounC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #15,067 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: hostelries

A hostelry is an inn, in old use. A fine old hostelry, the village hostelry, stop at the hostelry.

It is now used almost entirely with a smile, since calling a pub a hostelry is a joke about grandeur. It is a relative of hostel, hotel and hospital, all from the Latin for a guest.

Mmberney · CC0

Definitions of hostelry

  1. 1nounhostelryAn inn, in old use.C2

    “The weary travellers stopped for the night at a small hostelry on the coaching road.”

hostelry is an inn.

Where it comes from

Old French hostelerie comes from hostel, from Latin hospes, a guest or host.

  1. Old French

    hostelerie

  2. Middle French

    hostellerie

  3. Middle English

    hostelerie

  4. English, today

    hostelry

From Middle English hostelerie, from Middle French hostellerie, from Old French hostelerie, ostelerie; by surface analysis, hostel + -ry.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

hostelry in the wild

  • There is evidence that a hostelry has been on the site since 1379.

    Old White Horse Inn

  • The local hostelry is The Black Lion situated on Marlow Road.

    Well End, Buckinghamshire

  • The village pub, "The Old Inn", is a traditional coaching house, and a hostelry has been on the site since 1543.

    Hawkchurch

  • The Pall Mall Restaurant was a hostelry situated at Number 1 Cockspur Street, Westminster, London, just off Pall Mall and near Trafalgar Square.

    Pall Mall Restaurant

  • In 1953, the hospital service was moved to a new location nearby, and in 1954 the hostelry re-opened as a luxury hotel after undergoing a renovation.

    Hostal dos Reis Católicos

1 / 2

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

  • hostel