Also 5–7 brothell(e, 5 brodel(le. [ME. broþel, f. OE. broðen ruined, degenerate, pa. pple. of bréoðan to go to ruin: a variant of BRETHEL.
The modern sense arises from confusion with an entirely different word BORDEL (q.v.); the brothel was originally a person, the bordel a place. But the combinations bordel-house and brothel’s house ran together in the form brothel-house, which being shortened to brothel, the personal sense of this word became obs., and it remains only as the substitute of the original bordel.]
† 1. A worthless abandoned fellow, a wretch, scoundrel, scapegrace, good-for-nothing.
1393. Gower, Conf., III. 173. Quod Achab thanne, There is one, A brothel, which Micheas hight.
1394. P. Pl. Crede, 772. Ne bedden swiche broþels In so brode schetes.
c. 1440. York Myst., xix. 265. Lorde, tokenyng hadde we none To knawe þat brothell [Christ] by.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., 130. I [Herod] shall se that brodelle [Christ] bloode By hym that me has boght.
c. 1475. Lyt. Childr. Bk., in Babees Bk. (1868), 18. Fylle not thy mouth as done brothellis.
1532. More, Confut. Tindale, Wks. 514/1. The holy Lenton faste, whiche these brotheles so boldly take vpon them to breake.
1594. Carew, Tasso (1881), 117. [They] with wrath … Enflamde, fortune vniust and brothell call.
† 2. An abandoned woman, a prostitute. Obs.
1493. Festivall (W. de W., 1515), 54 b. He … went agayne to a brodelles hous.
1535. Fisher, Wks., 418. Why doeth a common brothel take no shame of hir abhomination?
1546. Langley, Pol. Verg. De Invent., III. xii. 79 b. Venus … was a common harlot & brothel of her body.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus., 58. A filthie strumpet or brothel.
1606. G. W[oodcocke], Ivstine, 113 b. A company of concubins and brothels.
† b. (See quot.) Obs. rare.
1613. R. C., Table Alph. (ed. 3), Brothell, keeper of a house of baudry.
3. Short for brothel’s house, brothel-house (2, 4 b); taking the place of the earlier BORDEL, BORDEL-HOUSE: A house of ill fame, bawdy-house.
a. 1593. H. Smith, Wks. (1867), II. 26. Some [return] unto the taverns, and some unto the alehouses … and some unto brothels.
1605. Shaks., Lear, III. iv. 99. Keepe thy foote out of Brothels.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Sat., Wks. 1730, I. 56. We need not rake the brothel and the stews.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 190, ¶ 2. You understand by this time that I was left in a Brothel.
1751. Johnson, Rambl., No. 171, ¶ 12. Tricked up for sale by the mistress of a brothel.
1828. Macaulay, Hallam, Ess. (1851), I. 86. The offal of gaols and brothels.
4. Attrib. and Comb. a. attrib. or as adj.
1633. P. Fletcher, Purple Isl., I. xviii. Or Mævius chaunt his thoughts in brothell charm.
a. 1711. Ken, Hymnotheo, Poet. Wks. 1721, III. 291. With so profligate a Race, Within their Brothel-Heav’n.
a. 1856. Mrs. Browning, Soul’s Trav., 39. The brothel shriek, and the Newgate laugh.
b. comb., as brothel-haunting, -keeper, -like, -master, -monger; brothel-house = BROTHEL 3.
1692. trans. Sallust, 17. The Rage of adulterous Lust, of *Brothel-haunting and other Bestialities.
1530. Palsgr., 201/2. *Brothelleshouse, bordel.
1535. Coverdale, Ezek. xvi. 39. [They] shal breake downe thy stewes, and destroye thy brodel houses.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, I. i. 256. Hang me vp at the doore of a brothel house for the signe of blinde Cupid!
1678. Yng. Man’s Call., 273. Thou shalt be … put into the common stews & brothel-houses.
1820. T. Mitchell, Aristoph., I. 255. One Philostratus, a *brothel-keeper.
1803. Southey, in Ann. Rev., I. 41. We will not transcribe Mr. Fischer’s *brothel-like description.
1608. Middleton, Trick to Catch, &c. He’s a rioter, a wast-thrift, a *brothel-master.
1566. Drant, Horace Sat., I. iv. 113. No *brothelmonger be.
