brothel
[broth-uh l, broth -, braw-thuh l, -th uh l]
- a house of prostitution.
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Origin of brothel
1350–1400 for earlier sense; short for brothel-house whore-house; Middle English brothel harlot, orig. worthless person, equivalent to broth- (past participle stem of brethen, Old English brēothan to decay, degenerate) + -el noun suffix
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for brothel
Contemporary Examples
The documentary Ukraine Is Not a Brothel, directed by Kitty Green, opens in a most unusual way.
Femen’s Abusive Patriarch, Victor Svyatski, Exposed in 'Ukraine Is Not a Brothel’Marlow Stern
March 12, 2014
One hour into Ukraine Is Not a Brothel, Green sits down with Victor for an interview.
Femen’s Abusive Patriarch, Victor Svyatski, Exposed in 'Ukraine Is Not a Brothel’Marlow Stern
March 12, 2014
brothel
- a house or other place where men pay to have sexual intercourse with prostitutes
- Australian informal any untidy or messy place
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Word Origin
C16: short for brothel-house, from C14 brothel useless person, from Old English brēothan to deteriorate; related to briethel worthless
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for 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 *breuthanan, variant of *breutanan "to break" (cf. brittle). In 16c. brothel-house was confused with unrelated bordel (see bordello) and the word shifted meaning from a person to a place.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper