Hostler

An hostler, pronounced (and occasionally spelled) ostler, is an archaic word for a groom or stableman, i.e. the occupation of someone employed in a stable to take care of horses. [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=hostler&searchmode=none EtymologyOnLine- Hostler] ]

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).

A similar word, "hostelero" (innkeeper, the one that tookcare of a hostal), exists in Spanish.

Other uses

In modern usage, hostler is also used to mean a person who services a truck or railroad engine at the end of a run. [ [http://www.yourdictionary.com/hostler "Hostler - Definition"] . "YourDictionary". Referenced May 19, 2008.]

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 hostler is in love with Bess, the landlord's daughter, and Bess loves the outlaw highwayman, Tim betrays the couple to the soldiers. []

John Keats (1795- 1821), the famous Romantic Poet, was the son of an hostler. 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. ["Romanticism, An Anthology" Third Edition, Duncan Wu, ed., p. 1332]

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