brothel
pronunciation
How to pronounce brothel in British English:
UK [ˈbrɒθl]
How to pronounce brothel in American English:
US [ˈbrɑθl]
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- Noun:
- a building where prostitutes are available
Word Origin
- brothel
- brothel: [14] Originally, brothel was a general term of abuse for any worthless or despised person (John Gower, in his Confessio Amantis 1393, writes: ‘Quoth Achab then, there is one, a brothel, which Micheas hight [who is called Micheas]’); it was a derivative of the Old English adjective brothen ‘ruined, degenerate’, which was originally the past participle of the verb brēothan ‘deteriorate’ (possibly a relative of brēotan ‘break’, which may be connected with brittle).In the late 15th century we have the first evidence of its being applied specifically to a ‘prostitute’. Thence came the compound brothel-house, and by the late 16th century this had been abbreviated to brothel in its current sense.
- brothel (n.)
- "bawdy house," 1590s, shortened from brothel-house, from brothel "prostitute" (late 15c.), earlier "vile, worthless person" of either sex (14c.), from Old English broðen past participle of breoðan "deteriorate, go to ruin," from Proto-Germanic *breuthan "to be broken up," related to *breutan "to break" (see brittle). In 16c. brothel-house was confused with unrelated bordel (see bordello) and the word shifted meaning from a person to a place.
Example
- 1. On the lithuanian side of the border was a big brothel .
- 2. The drug can be found in any tea or cigarette stall around the brothel .
- 3. So we emerged from the brothel with five lives that had just been transformed .
- 4. Then srey neth and I fled before the brothel 's owner was even out of bed .
- 5. Just as the moralists feared , the automobile had become a brothel on wheels .