hostler

WOTD – 13 January 2008

From Middle English hostiler, from Middle French hostiler, from Old French hostelier, from Medieval Latin hostilārius, hospitālārius, from hospitāle "inn", from hospitālis "hospitable", from hospes "host, guest". Both hostler and its alternative form ostler originally meant simply "innkeeper", and acquired a specific association with horses in the second half of the 14th century. Doublet of hosteler and hotelier.

hostler (plural hostlers)

A worker employed at an inn, hostelry, or stable to look after horses.
Synonym: groom
- 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 2, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:
  As the chaise drove through Clavering, the hostler standing whistling under the archway of the Clavering Arms, winked the postilion ominously, as much as to say all was over.
(by extension, US) A railway worker employed to care for a locomotive or other large engine; especially, a yard jockey.
Synonyms: switcher (US), shunter (UK)

person at an inn who looks after horses

person employed to care for a locomotive

English