bathhouse
/ˈbæθˌhaʊs/ noun
Forms bathhouses
- noun A building with baths for communal use.
- noun A building where swimmers can change clothes.
- noun A business with bath-like facilities, which chiefly serves as a place for sexual encounters, especially among men.
Synonyms
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English bathhous, bathous, from Old English bæþhūs (“bathhouse”), equivalent to bath + house. Cognate with Dutch badhuis (“bathhouse”), German Badehaus (“bathhouse”), German Low German Baadhuus, Boodhuus (“bathhouse”), Danish badehus (“bathhouse”), Norwegian Bokmål badehus (“bathhouse”), Norwegian Nynorsk badehus (“bathhouse”), Swedish badhus (“bathhouse”).
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “bathhouse”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details