I've always wondered about the several uses of the word "hotel" in France. It could the the City Hall, or the place you sleep, or a home/mansion of some importance? Can someone please give me the scoop on the meanings of "hotel"..? Thank you.

Hotel = hotel
Hotel de ville = town hall
Hotel particulier= private mansion

Actually the work <i>h&ocirc;tel</i> is modified when anything but a hotel, as in <i>H&ocirc;tel de ville</i>, <i>h&ocirc;tel particuler</i>, <i>h&ocirc;tel-Dieu</i>. I suspect that the modern meaning of <i>h&ocirc;tel</i> is relatively recent and that before the 19th century, one stayed in an <i>auberge</i>. But best would be to look at the <i>Littr&eacute;</i> which would give the history of the word and its origin.

not <i>work</i> but <i><b>word</b></i>.

H&ocirc;tel has indeed other meanings than the obvious :
- former city mansion of a nobleman or a rich bourgeois : H&ocirc;tel de Lauzun, H&ocirc;tel de Luynes, H&ocirc;tel Sal&eacute;
- large government building :
H&ocirc;tel de la Monnaie, H&ocirc;tel du d&eacute;partement (pr&eacute;fecture) H&ocirc;tel de police, H&ocirc;tel de Ville.

My favourite: Hotel (de) Dieu (or hospital)

Hotel-Dieu doesn't literally mean hospital, there is a word for that (hopital). It was a term started when they were sort of combinations of nursing homes, hospices, and whatever kind of medical care could exist run by nuns. The name (mansion of God) came because they were run by religious orders and the Catholic church, and some functions were just religious, not medical, and the place was meant to be both charitable and hospitable. You wouldn't give that name to a hospital that wasn't run by nuns or some religious group. Hotel-Dieu in Paris was originally totally run by the church and wasn't secularized until 1600 or so.

A h&ocirc;tel is just a major building, which is why it covers those other possibilities.

Hotel = hotel
Hotel = h&ocirc;tel des imp&ocirc;ts (tax office)
Hotel = H&ocirc;tel de Ville (major city hall, whereas a minor town just has a &quot;mairie&quot;.)
Hotel = major building (mansion, manor).

Then of course there the the meaning of hotel in Australia ( = bar ).

Christina wrote: &quot;Hotel-Dieu doesn't literally mean hospital, there is a word for that (hopital).&quot;

Well, there is room to argue that in English, hospital doesn't literally mean hospital, either. See, for example, http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=hospital . So the etymology of hospital parallels that of Hotel-Dieu.

In Orleans they call the local prison, on Ave Canada, the &lt;Hotel Canada&gt;

thus in this context it would seem to mean Hotel like in our hotel and Hotel like in a building as well?

In French the circumflex accent '^' often indicates a lost 's'. Hence 'h&ocirc;tel' originally was 'hostel', which originates from the Latin 'hospitalis' meaning 'guest'. F&ecirc;te = feast, b&ecirc;te = beast, temp&ecirc;te = tempest, for&ecirc;t = forest and so on.

The historical meaning of hostel is 'inn' or 'large house', hence all the variations earlier in the thread.

Oh, the burdens of a classical education.

There are quite a few references to hospitalet around the med :

www.masdehospitalet.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L'Hospitalet_de_Llobregat
www.snooth.com/wines/Chateau+l'Hospitalet

etc.

A hospitalet was a sort a sort of hotel used by travelling monks. As this was the time of the crusades, many of these monks were military rather than religious.

Peter

Well, thanks to all! Very informative and much better than &quot;google&quot; did for me.

re hopital..there is an interesting museum (I think in the 5th) about the history of the public hospitals in Paris..again the theme is that of the hospice.

stfc, thanks for that little bit of etymology on the circumflex in French. I'll add that to my little store of rules for translating French. (Like in words with a leading &eacute; followed by a consonant, replace the s with an s. E.g. &eacute;cole, &eacute;tat, etc.)

Perhaps we should also have a discussion on another word with a circumflex and various different meanings - pate.

It can be a spread of (usually) ground meat, pasta, or a pastille (as made by Rowntrees)

A spread of ground meat is a p&acirc;t&eacute;, not p&acirc;te.

&gt;&gt;&gt;Oh, the burdens of a classical education.&lt;&lt;&lt;

The original Latin word is hospitium which means &quot;inn&quot; or &quot;hospitality&quot; or &quot;hotel&quot;. Hospitalis was originally an adjectiv and developed in medieval times into a noun, meaning &quot;hospital&quot;.

P&acirc;t&eacute; comes from pastus, meaning &quot;pasture&quot; or &quot;food&quot; (originally for animals (!)).