Dictionary Definition
bagnio
Noun
1 a building where prostitutes are available
[syn: whorehouse,
brothel, bordello, house
of prostitution, house
of ill repute, bawdyhouse, cathouse, sporting
house]
2 a building containing public baths [syn:
bathhouse]
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Noun
Extensive Definition
Bagnios were the slave prisons of Turkey and the
Barbary
regencies. In the Barbary prisons, the hostages of the
pirates spent their evenings there, leaving during the day to
work as laborers, galley
slaves, or domestic servants. The term was originally used for
a bath or bathing-house
(Italian bagno, Spanish baño) in Istanbul, near which the prison
for hostages was. Bagne became the French word for the prisons of
the galley slaves in the French Navy. The last one in European
France (Toulon) was closed
in 1873.
The communication between master and slave and
between slaves of different origins was made in
Lingua Franca (also known as Sabir), a
Mediterranean pidgin with Romance and Arabic lexicon.
In England, it was originally used to name
coffee
houses which offered Turkish baths, but by 1740 it signified a
place where rooms could be provided for the night with no questions
asked, later a house
of prostitution.
In fiction
Los tratos de Argel ("The trades of Algiers", 1580),Los baños de Argel ("The Bagnios of Algiers", 1615), El gallardo español ("The Gallard Spaniard", 1615) and La gran sultana ("The great sultaness", 1615) were four comedies by Miguel de Cervantes about the life of the caitiffs. Cervantes himself had been imprisoned in Algiers (1575-1580). His Don Quixote also features a subplot with the story of a caitiff (chapters 39-41 of the first part).References
bagnio in German: Bagno (Strafanstalt)
bagnio in French: Bagne