hôtel de villen.
/(h)əʊˌtɛl də ˈvɪl/, /(h)əʊˌtɛl də ˈviːl/, U.S. /(h)oʊˌtɛl də ˈvil/ In France or in French-speaking countries: a town hall; the official residence of a mayor.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > rule or government > ruler or governor > deliberative, legislative, or administrative assembly > local government body > [noun] > local government offices > town-hall > in France
hôtel de ville1744
mairie1864
1744 Lady M. W. Montagu Let. 12 June (1966) II. 331 Here [i.e. in Avignon] are 2 Consuls chose every year..and there is as much struggling for that Dignity in the Hotel de ville as in the Senate.
1789 A. Young Jrnl. 30 July in Trav. France (1792) i. 149 Two bourgeois musketeers conducted me to the hotel de ville.
1797 Encycl. Brit. VIII. 683/1 The hotel de ville is what we call a town-house or town-hall.
1841 Countess of Blessington Idler in France I. 4 It was then given to a certain Pierre Boys, in exchange for a piece of ground to erect a new hôtel-de-ville.
1846 C. Dickens Pictures from Italy 9 Sometimes an hotel de ville, sometimes a guard-house.
1957 J. S. Bromley in J. M. Wallace-Hadrill & J. McManners France: Govt. & Society 147 Louis XIV made his first formal visit to the Hôtel de Ville, in 1687, to ‘forgive’ the City [of Paris] for its share in the Fronde.
1973 Times 22 Feb. 5/1 M Louis Pradel..dominates the hôtel de ville.
1999 J. Elliot Unexpected Light (2000) i. 33 We saw one ministry, across a yellowing lawn, that resembled an hôtel de ville on the Côte d'Azur, and another that looked like a Bavarian country mansion.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2008; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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