Obs. Forms: 4–9 bordel, (4 ? bordeal), 5–7 bordell, 5 bordele, bourdel(l, bordyl(le, burdell, 6 Sc. bo(i)rdall, 8 bourdel. [a. OF. bordel ‘cabin, hut, brothel,’ corresp. to Pr. bordel, Sp. burdel, It. bordello, med.L. bordellus, -um, dim. of late L. borda (? or of *bordum): see BORDAR. (Now superseded by brothel, which has no etymological connection with it.)]

1

  1.  A house of prostitution, a brothel.

2

c. 1305.  St. Lucy, 92, in E. E. P. (1862), 104. Oþer to comun bordel beo ilad oþer ibore.

3

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Pers. T., ¶ 811. Harlottis, that haunten bordels of these foule wommen.

4

1483.  Caxton, Gold. Leg., 84/2. I wente to the bourdel.

5

1535.  Stewart, Cron. Scot., III. 276. Semdill in the kirk and richt oft in the bordell.

6

c. 1620.  Z. Boyd, Zion’s Flowers (1855), 79. To make a Bordell of my Masters house.

7

a. 1722.  Mrs. Centlivre, Marplot, III. i. 153. Egad, maybe it is some private Bourdel.

8

1828.  Scott, F. M. Perth, viii. As if they were in a bordel at Paris.

9

1850.  Carlyle, Latter-d. Pamph., viii. That this universe … was a Cookery-shop and Bordel.

10

  b.  Prostitution, fornication. [Cf. OF. faire bordel de.]

11

1382.  Wyclif, Lev. xix. 29. Ne putt thow thi douȝter to bordel.

12

1393.  Gower, Conf., II. 162. All his rent In wine and bordel he despent.

13

c. 1440.  Gesta Rom. (1879), 220.

14

  2.  A worthless fellow, a good-for-nothing. (Erroneously used for BROTHEL 1, as on the other hand brothel has taken the place of BORDEL in sense 1.)

15

1474.  Caxton, Chesse, 104. He drof and chased out of the hoost moo than two thousand bourdellys.

16

  3.  Attrib. and Comb., as bordel woman, house.

17

1382.  Wyclif, Baruch vi. 11. Of it thei ȝeuen to pute in bordel house, and ouren hooris.

18

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Pers. T., ¶ 902. Commune bordeal womman.

19

1480.  Caxton, Chron. Eng., cxcvii. 175. Holy chirche tho had no more reuerence than it had ben a bordelhows.

20

1541.  Elyot, Image Govt. (1549), 6. In common baines and bordell houses.

21

  ¶ Chatterton (misled by Kersey: cf. Phillips, 1706) took bordel in the OF. sense of ‘cot.’

22

a. 1780.  Chatterton, Wks. (ed. Skeat), I. 203. Would’st thou ken Nature in her better part? Goe, searche the logges and bordels of the hynde.

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