brothel
UK /ˈbɹɒθəl/ · US /ˈbɹɔθəl/ noun
Forms brothels
Synonyms
academy bawdy-house bordello cathouse crib disorderly house house of accommodation house of ill fame house of ill reputation house of ill repute knocking shop leaping house lupanar massage parlour nunnery pushing school red house sauna sporting house vaulting school whorehouse bagnio house of prostitution bawdyhouse
Etymology
Short for brothel-house (“house of prostitution”), from brothel (“a wretch; scoundrel; lecher; harlot; prostitute”) + house, influenced by bordel. For more on brothel (“a wretch”), see below.
From Middle English brothel, brodel, brodelle, brethel (“a wretch, a depraved man or woman”) (compare also Middle English bretheling (“a wretch”)), apparently from an unrecorded Old English *brēoþel (“degenerative, corruptive”), related to Old English ābrēoþan (“to unsettle, degrade, ruin, frustrate, degenerate, deteriorate, fall away”); Old English ābroþen (“degenerate, base, trifling”); both ultimately from Proto-Germanic *breuþaną (“to fall apart; crumble”).
The expected modern English form would be *broddle (see fiddle); the failure of the change from /ðl/ to /dl/ may be because of the intervening schwa in the word's uninflected forms, influence from the verb, or most likely, a dialectal development (compare stathel besides staddle).
Webster’s 1913
- noun A house of lewdness or ill fame; a house frequented by prostitutes; a bawdyhouse.
Etymology [OE. brothel, brodel, brethel, a prostitute, a worthless fellow, fr. AS. beró to ruin, destroy; cf. AS. breótan to break, and E. brittle. The term brothel house was confused with bordel brothel. CF. Bordel.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “brothel”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details