Lobbied

How to spell lobbied

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce lobbied

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does lobbied mean?

1. verbSought to influence politicians or officials in favour of a particular cause or outcome.

Lobbied in a sentence

• The union lobbied parliament for safer working conditions.

• Residents lobbied the council to keep the local library open.

Where does lobbied come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the past tense of the verb 'lobby', which traces back to the Medieval Latin word 'lobia' or 'lobium', meaning a covered walk, a portico, or a gallery; the same root gave English the architectural sense of a 'lobby' as an entrance hall. By the 1600s 'lobby' described the large entrance halls and antechambers of public buildings, including the chambers where members of Parliament gathered. The political meaning grew in the 1800s, especially in the United States, where people seeking to influence legislators would wait and press their case in these lobbies, so 'to lobby' came to mean to petition or persuade those in power. The verb then took the regular past tense, but because the base word ends in a consonant plus 'y', the spelling changes the 'y' to 'i' before adding '-ed', producing 'lobbied' rather than 'lobbyed'. That doubled 'b' carried over from 'lobby' and the y-to-i switch are the two points where writers most often slip.

How the word is built

• lobby (a hall, hence to frequent the lobby of a legislature)
• -ied (past tense, with y changed to i)