Words for Inns & Hotels
Inn
guest house (Old English) ⚜ hostry (1377) ⚜ harbergery; host (1382)
hostel (c.1384) ⚜ hostelry (c.1386) ⚜ harbergage; inn (c.1400)
hostelar (1424) ⚜ host-house (1570) ⚜ fondaco (1599)
auberge; sporting house (1615) ⚜ albergo (1617) ⚜ rancho (1648)
posada (1652) ⚜ public house (1655) ⚜ inn-house (1694)
livery tavern (1787) ⚜ roadhouse (1806) ⚜ meson (1817)
tambo (1830) ⚜ gasthaus (1834) ⚜ estalagem (1835)
locanda (1838) ⚜ temperance inn (c.1849) ⚜ sala (1871)
bush-inn (1881) ⚜ ryokan (1914) ⚜ pousada (1949)
B and B (abbreviation for "Bed and Breakfast") (1961)
Hotel
hotel (1687) ⚜ hotel garni (1744) ⚜ lodge (c.1817) ⚜ gasthof (1832)
temperance house (1833) ⚜ temperance hotel (1837)
railway hotel (1839) ⚜ parador (1845) ⚜ palace hotel (1870)
metropole (1890) ⚜ Ritz (1900) ⚜ Trust House (1903) ⚜ motel (1925)
residential (1940) ⚜ welfare hotel (1952) ⚜ botel (1956) ⚜ floatel (1959)
The turning point in the first category above is around 1600.
Before then, there were relatively few words for a traveller’s lodging, and they form a close-knit etymological community.
The later decades of the 16th century saw a great increase in travel from England to the continent of Europe, during periods of relative peace. Some of it was motivated by the need to avoid religious persecution in England. Some was for cultural reasons.
Travelling theatre companies brought their plays abroad, and the wealthy made cultural visits, especially to France and Italy – forerunners of the ‘Grand Tour’ which would become a major part of the European social scene during and after the late 17th century.
By the 20th century, with travel becoming so much easier, we see words coming from further afield, as English becomes established as a global language
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