lodging

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English logging,^[2][3] formed from English lodge + -ing.^[4][5][6][7] The verb lodge is from Middle English loggen,^[5][2][8] from Old French logier (“to lodge; find lodging for”),^[5][4][8] from loge (“arbour, hut, cabin”).^[5][4] Etymonline traces that noun to Frankish *laubja (“shelter”), from Proto-Germanic *laubja-,^[5] while the OED and Dictionary.com pass through Medieval Latin laubia, also lobia,^[4][7] which the OED takes from Old High German *laubja (“sheltered or shady place, booth, hut”).^[4] A link with the Germanic word for leaf is a widespread guess, as "shelter of foliage",^[5] but the OED notes that some scholars dispute it.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A dwelling or abode, in the phrases make or take one's lodging: 1362, in Langland's Piers Plowman.^[4] Etymonline finds the sense "encampment" a little earlier, in the early 14th century,^[5] which fits the earliest use of the verb, of an army setting up camp.^[5][8]

Semantic evolution

The word followed the verb from armies to private people.^[5][8] The plural meant military quarters from 1475 to 1677,^[4] and the sense of a place where someone stays is recorded from about 1380.^[4] From 1454 it also meant accommodation for the night or for living in,^[4] and only later narrowed to accommodation in hired rooms, as in board and lodging.^[4][6] The plural lodgings, rooms hired in another person's house, dates from 1640; formerly it could include rooms in an inn or hotel, which it no longer does.^[4][6] Johnson (1755) gave "temporary habitation; rooms hired in the house of another" first, quoting Othello, then "place of residence" and "harbour; covert".^[9] His last sense matches the use for the lair of a buck or stag, recorded from before 1586 to 1610.^[4][6] Other uses died out too: a ward in a hospital or a prison cell (1612–89),^[4][6] a square on a chessboard (1562),^[4] and the material one sleeps on (1683–1701).^[4][6] From the 17th century the plural also named an official residence, especially that of the head of certain Oxford colleges,^[6][10] and judges' lodgings housed the assize judge during the assizes.^[6] In Scots a lodging was a self-contained house,^[6][11] and lodging-room meant a bedroom in Yorkshire, Lancashire and Lincolnshire;^[11][6] in Hampshire the adjective meant "stationary", of a sick person who was neither better nor worse.^[11]

Timeline

• early 14th century – encampment.^[5]
• 1362 – dwelling, abode (obsolete by 1611).^[4]
• c. 1380 – a place or building where someone lodges.^[4]
• 1454 – accommodation for the night or for living in.^[4]
• 1475 – plural, military quarters (obsolete by 1677).^[4]
• 1525 – the action of lodging.^[4]
• 1562 – a square on a chessboard.^[4]
• 1567 – adjective, resting on something; in nautical use, of a horizontal knee.^[4]
• before 1586 – the lair of a buck or stag (obsolete by 1610).^[4]
• 1612 – a ward in a hospital, a prison cell (obsolete by 1689).^[4]
• 1640 – plural, rooms hired in another person's house.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Temporary accommodation, especially a place to sleep: The inn offered a night's lodging to the walkers.^[10][2]
2. lodgings: a room or rooms rented in another person's house: The student found lodgings near the station.^[4][6][10]
3. A place to live; a dwelling.^[2][4]
4. A place where something settles or comes to rest; a lodgment.^[2]
5. The official residence of the head of a college at Oxford University; often lodgings.^[10][6]
6. The action of the verb lodge.^[4][6]
7. (Scotland) A self-contained house.^[6][11]
8. (obsolete, 1475–1677) lodgings: military quarters.^[4][6]

Adjective

1. (nautical) Of a knee in a ship: horizontal, as opposed to a hanging or vertical one.^[4]

Word family

• lodging house

Related words

• lodge
• lodger
• lodgment
• loge
• loggia
• lobby

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ Mayhew, A. L.; Skeat, Walter W. (1888), A Concise Dictionary of Middle English from A.D. 1150 to 1580, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ a b c d Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)