Other forms: spas
A spa is a place offering baths, massage and treatments. A day spa, a spa hotel, a spa treatment.
Originally a spa was a town with a mineral spring that people visited for their health — Bath, Buxton, Harrogate — and taking the waters was a serious medical practice. The modern day spa is about relaxation instead. A hot tub is often called a spa in America and Australia. Note spa town, spa water, and that the word is now a general marketing label attached to almost anything with a robe and low lighting.
1nounspaA place offering baths, massage and treatments.
“For her birthday, we booked her a day at a spa with a massage and a facial.”
2nountownA town with mineral springs.
“The whole town was built as a spa in the eighteenth century.”
spa is a place of treatment.
The word comes from Spa, a town in Belgium famous for its mineral springs since the sixteenth century. It is one of the small number of English common nouns that began as a place name, alongside denim, jeans and champagne.
Latin
spargō — to scatter, sprinkle, or moisten
English, today
spa
The term is derived from the name of the Belgian town of Spa, where since medieval times illnesses caused by iron deficiency were treated by drinking chalybeate (iron-bearing) spring water. In 16th century England the old Roman ideas of medicinal bathing were revived at towns like Bath, and in 1571 William Slingsby who had been to the Belgian town (which he called Spaw) discovered a chalybeate spring in Yorkshire. He built an enclosed well at what became known as Harrogate, the first resort in England for drinking medicinal waters, then in 1596 Dr. Timothy Bright called the resort The English Spaw, beginning the use of the word Spa as a generic description rather than as the place name of the Belgian town. At first this term referred specifically to resorts for water drinking rather than bathing, but this distinction was gradually lost and many spas offer external remedies. There are various stories about the origin of the name. A Belgian spring of iron-bearing water was called Espa from the wa - term for "fountain", and was used in 1326 as a cure by an iron master with such success that he founded a health resort that developed into the town, though it has been suggested that this term may be derived from the name of the resort. Some have suggested that the town's name can be ultimately sourced from Latin spargō (“to scatter, sprinkle, or moisten”), though this derivation is problematic.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA