Meaning

noun a health resort near a spring or at the seaside

noun a fashionable hotel usually in a resort area

noun a place of business with equipment and facilities for exercising and improving physical fitness

originThe term is derived from the name of the Belgian town of Spa, where since medieval times illnesses caused by iron deficiency were treated by drinking chalybeate (iron-bearing) spring water. In 16ᵗʰ century England the old Roman ideas of medicinal bathing were revived at towns like Bath, and in 1571 William Slingsby who had been to the Belgian town (which he called Spaw) discovered a chalybeate…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0