Hostler

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈ(h)ɒs.lə/

Definitions

1. A person responsible for feeding, grooming, and caring for horses ; an employee who moves locomotives within rail yards or stations
2. Someone who tends and manages horses in a stable ; a railway worker specializing in the repositioning of engines
3. An individual charged with the care and handling of horses ; a staff member who transfers locomotives between tracks in a railway facility

Etymology: Hostler and ostler are the same word, and it began as a name for an innkeeper rather than a stableman. The chain runs from Latin "hospes", meaning host or guest, to "hospitale", an inn, then through Medieval Latin and Old French "hostelier", the keeper of a hostel (a lodging house). Middle English took it up as "hostiler" in the same sense, so for centuries the word covered anyone who ran an inn, whatever they kept in the yard. The narrowing came in the second half of the 14th century, when the word began to attach itself to horses. Travellers arriving at an inn needed their animals fed, watered and stabled, and the person responsible for the yard became the one people named. The inn-keeping sense faded, leaving a word for the man in the stable. The word also has two near relatives in English. "Hosteler" and "hotelier" come from the same French root, so "hotel" and this word are cousins, with hotels and hostels descending from the same Latin idea of hospitality.

Synonyms: stableman, groom