The Etymology of Hostel
Hostel and hotel are the same word, separated by 400 years of French spelling reform. Both descend from Medieval Latin 'hospitale' (guesthouse), from Latin 'hospes' (host, guest, stranger — the same word for all three, because the ancient world treated hospitality as a single shared duty). Old French 'hostel' was borrowed into Middle English in the 13th century. By the early modern period French had dropped the 's' and replaced it with a circumflex, giving 'hôtel,' and English re-borrowed that form in the 1640s as 'hotel.' Both spellings now coexist in English with specialised meanings: 'hotel' for the upmarket lodging, 'hostel' for the cheaper or institutional kind. The same Latin root produces a remarkable cluster — hospital (a place for the sick guest), hospice (a place for the dying guest), hospitable, hospitality, host, and even (via Old French) hostage. All of them are the ancient duty of welcome, specialised in different directions.