landlord

   As the novels of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries make clear, the usual way of calling for mine host’s attention when arriving at an inn was to shout ‘Landlord!’ Modern publicans still accept this term as one of their professional titles, and may occasionally be addressed by it. It is unlikely that it is used to the other type of landlord, the one who owns property which he lets to tenants.

   The use of ‘landlord’ to describe an innkeeper stretches the original meaning of the word considerably. A landlord was once a land lord, i.e. a lordly owner of land who let it to others. There were likely to be buildings on the land, so the meaning was extended to include those who owned any kind of residential property which they let to others. That meaning has remained in force, but by another extension ‘landlord’ was used to describe someone who allowed his property to be used overnight for a fee, one who had temporary tenants. Most early innkeepers were landlords in that sense; the coaching inns functioned as hotels. Once the association was established between landlord and innkeeper, it became possible for the modern landlord to be known as such, even though he could no longer offer his customers a bed for the night. The vocative is heard on all sides every Christmas, if at no other time, as carollers sing: ‘Come, landlord, fill the flowing bowl/Until it doth run over…/For tonight we’ll merry be,/Tomorrow we’ll be sober.’