Hostler
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The word hostler is an archaic term for a groom or stableman, i.e., the occupation of someone employed in a stable to take care of horses.[1] The h is silent, and the word pronounced ostler, which is how it is also spelled in Britain—where the word is not considered obsolete[2], and is still in current use (i.e., is not an archaism) and means a groom who cares for horses.
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[edit] Etymology
The word, recorded since c.1386, meaning "one who tends to horses at an inn" - and also, occasionally, "innkeeper" - is derived from Anglo-French hostiler (modern French hostelier), itself from Medieval Latin hostilarius "the monk who entertains guests at a monastery", from hospitale "inn" (compare hospital, hospitaller, hospitality).[1]
A similar word, hostelero (innkeeper, the one that tookcare of a hostal), exists in Spanish.
[edit] Other uses
In modern American usage only (not in Britain), hostler is also used to mean a person who services a truck, bus, or railroad engine at the end of a run.[3] The term is also applied to specialized semi-trailer truck tractors used to move 40 foot trailers within a port facility.
[edit] Cultural references
The Ostler is the title of an 1855 novel by Victorian writer Wilkie Collins.
In the 1906 poem The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes, a classic love triangle leads to doom: because Tim the ostler is in love with Bess, the landlord's daughter, and Bess loves the outlaw highwayman, Tim betrays the couple to the soldiers.[4]
John Keats (1795- 1821), the famous Romantic Poet, was the son of an ostler. Thomas Keats was Head Ostler at the Swan and Hoop, Moorgate, London. The income of a Head Ostler at this time was a respectable amount, enough to ensure that Frances Keats was not required to work, and therefore considered Middle Class. [5]
In the story Rumpole and the Right to Silence by John Mortimer the Ostlers are supposed to be a secret organisation in the fictitious town of Gunster.
In the first book, The Gunslinger, in the epic series The Dark Tower by Stephen King there is a character (Kennerly) who is referred to as the hostler in the town of Tull.
[edit] References
- ^ a b EtymologyOnLine- Hostler
- ^ Chambers Dictionary 1994
- ^ "Hostler - Definition". YourDictionary. Referenced May 19, 2008.
- ^ The Highwayman at Wikisource
- ^ Romanticism, An Anthology Third Edition, Duncan Wu, ed., p. 1332
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