Date:    Tue, 9 Jun 1998 09:42:16 +0000
<br>From:    Jim Rader <jrader[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]M-W.COM>
<br>Subject: Re: Internment; Hotel
<br>
<br>> -------------------------------------------
<br>> INTERNMENT
<br>>
<br>>      OED has "internment" from 1870.
<br>>      (A)nd good will at his death, order'd the most magnificent internment for
<br>> him that has been known in New England" is in the New England Courant, 3-10
<br>> August 1724.
<br>>
<br>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<br>
<br>This is pretty obviously either a mental or a typographical error for
<br>_interment_.
<br>
<br>> -------------------------------------------
<br>> HOTEL
<br>>
<br>>      I forgot to check OED, but BARNHART'S DOE has "1765, in Smollett's
<br>> _Travels Through France and Italy_; earlier, a student residence at a
<br>> university (1748), borrowing from French _hotel_, from Old French _hostel_."
<br>>      "Paris, April 30...The Ambassador at his return to his hotel" is in the
<br>> Boston News Letter, 14-21 August 1721.
<br>>      "Hotel de Ville" is in the Boston News Letter, 4-11 June 1722.
<br>>      "Hamburgh, Oct. 24...hotel" is in the New England Weekly Journal, 15
<br>> January 1728.
<br>>      "The Hotel of France" is in the Boston Gazette, 21-27 January 1730.
<br>>      "A letter from Paris, Jan 4. ... In the course of this month will be
<br>> shewn at the hotel de Langueville" is in the American Weekly Mercury, 11-18
<br>> May 1738.
<br>>      And so on.  I deserve a free double-bed for this.
<br>>
<br>
<br>It doesn't look like any of these cites refer to _hotel_ in the sense
<br>"establishment where a guest pays for lodging and usually meals,"
<br>but it's only this sense that the 1760 date refers to.  OED2 has
<br>plenty of evidence for earlier senses.  "The ambassador at his return
<br>to his hotel" probably refers to the ambassador's permanent
<br>residence, but one would have to check the context to be sure.
<br>
<br>Jim Rader
<br>