etimologia turistica

Tourism
Etymologically, a tour is a ‘circular movement’. The word comes via Old French tour from Latin tornus ‘lathe,’ which also produced English turn.
It was not use for a ‘journey of visits’ – literally a ‘circuitous journey’ – until the 17th century (the term grand tour, denoting a lengthy journey around western Europe formerly undertaken by fashionable young men, ostensibly for educational purposes, is first recorded in the mid-18th century, but the derivative tourist does not crop up until about 1800).
Tournament and tourney both go back ultimately to a Vulgar Latin derivative tornus, the underlying etymological notion being of the combatants ‘turning’ or wheeling round to face each other. And tourniquet probably comes from the same source. See tour, tournament, and tourniquet, turn.


Travel
Travel and travail are doublets –that is to say, they have common ancestor, but have split into separate words. Their ultimate source is medieval trepàlium, a term for an instrument of torture made of three sharp stakes. This was a compound noun formed from Latin tres “three” and palus “stake” (source of English pale). From it was derived a verb trepaliare “torture on the trepalium,” hence generally “torture”. This passed into Old French as travailler, where its reflexive use “put oneself to pain or trouble” evolved to “work hard”. Its noun derivative travail “painful effort”, hard work” was borrowed by English as travail, and this quickly developed a new sense, “journey” (presumably from the notion of a “wearisome journey”), which came to be distinguished by the spelling travel.



Journey
Etymologically, a journey is a “day’s” travel. The word comes via Old French journèe from Vulgar Latin diurnata. This in turn was derived from Latin diurnum “daily allowance or ration,” a noun use of the adjective diurnus “daily”, which was based on dies “day”. The specific notion of a “day’s” travel had died out by the mid-16th century, leaving only the more general “travel”. But before going altogether, “day” left its mark on another manifestation of the word journey: the word journeyman “qualified worker”. This has no connection with “traveling”; it originally denoted one who was qualified to do a “day’s” work.
Another Latin derivative of diurnus was the adjective diurnalis, which has given English diurnal, journal (first cousin to diary), and journalism. Sojourn belongs to the same language family.

Hotel
Ultimately, hotel and hospital are the same word, but they have diverged widely over the centuries. Both go back to Medieval Latin hospitale ‘place where guests are received, hospice,’ but this developed in two different ways in Old French. One branch led with little change to English hospital, but a reduced form hostel also emerged (borrowed by English as hostel.)
Its modern French descendant is hotel, from which English gets hotel (originally used in the sense ‘large residence,’ as in the French hotel de ville ‘town hall,’ but since the 18th century increasingly restricted to its present-day sense). Other contributions made to English by Old French hostel are the derivatives hostelry and ostler, originally (as hosteler) ‘someone who receives guests’ but since the 14th century used for someone who looks after horses at an inn. See hospital, host, hostel, hostelry, and ostler.

Hospital
Like hospices, hotels, and hotels, hospitals were originally simply places at which guests are received. The word comes via Old French ospital from Medieval Latin hospitale, a noun use of the adjective hospitalis ‘of a guest.’ This in turn was derived from hospit-, the stem of Latin hospes ‘guest, host.’
In English, hospital began its semantic shift in the 15th century, being used for a ‘home for the elderly or infirm, or for down-and-outs’; and the modern sense ‘place where the sick are treated’ first appeared in the 16th century. The original notion of ‘receiving guests’ survives, of course, in hospitality and hospitable. See hospice, hospitable, host, hostel, and hotel.

Guest
Guest comes ultimately from the same source as produced host. Their family tree diverged in prehistoric times, but their close relationship is pointed up by the fact that the related French hôte means both ‘guest’ and ‘host.’ The common ancestor was Indo-European *gostis ‘stranger,’ whose Germanic descendant *gastiz produced German and Dutch gäst,, Swedish gäst, Danish gœst, and English guest. The Old English version of the word was giest, which would have produced modern English *yest, but it was elbowed out in Middle English times by Old Norse gestr. The spelling gu-, indicating a hard /g/ sound, developed in the 16th century. See host, xenophobia.

Host
Indo-European ghostis denoted “stranger.” From it were descendent Germanic gastiz (source of English guest), Greek xenos “guest, stranger” (source of English zenon and xenophobia), and Latin hostis “stranger, enemy.” This original meaning is retained in the derivative adjective hostile, but the noun itself in post-classical times came to mean “army”, and that is where (via Old French) English got host “army” from. Its main modern sense, “large number” is a 17th century development. But Latin and another noun, hospes “host”, which was probably derived from hostis.
Its stem form, hospit-, passed into Old French as hoste (whose modern French descendant hôte means both “host” and “guest”.) English borrowed this in the 13th century, giving it a second noun host, quite distinct in meaning, but ultimately of the same origin. (Other English words that owe their existence to Latin hospes include hospice, hospital, hostel, hotel, and ostler.)
But that is not the end of the host story. English has yet another noun host, meaning “bread of the Eucharist”. This comes via Old French hoiste from Latin hostia “sacrifice”, victim.

Resort
Boating Resort (Centro di canottaggio)
Fishing Resort (Centro di pesca)
Health Resort (Stazione Climatica)
Religious Resort (Centro religioso)
Holiday Resort (Centro di villeggiatura)
Mountain Resort (Centro di villeggiatura in montagna)
Seaside Resort (Centro di villeggiatura balneare)
Summer Resort (Centro di villeggiatura estiva)
Winter Resort (Centro di villeggiatura invernale)
Ski Resort (Centro sciistico)
Riding Resort (Centro di passeggiate a cavallo)
Diving Resort (Centro di villeggiatura subacquea)
Cultural Resort
Business Resort

Latin sors originally denoted a “piece of wood used for drawing lots” (it is the source of English sorcerer). It later developed metaphorically into “that which is allotted to one by fate,” and hence one’s “fortune” or “condition,” and by the time it had turned into sorta, in the post-Latin precursor of the Romance languages, its meaning had developed further to “rank, class, order.” It was this sense that reached English, via old French sorte. The notion of “arranging into classes” underlies the verb sort, and also the derived assort (15th century). From the same source come consort, and assort.

Leisure
The etymological idea underlying leisure is that of “having permission”, and hence of “having the freedom to do as one likes”. The word came via Anglo-Norman leisour from Old French leisir. This was a noun use of a verb that meant “be permitted,” and came from Latin licere “be permitted” (source of English illicit and license.