Lobby

How to spell lobby

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce lobby

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does lobby mean?

1. nounAn entrance hall, foyer, or large waiting area inside a building.
2. nounA group of people who try to influence politicians or officials on a particular issue.
3. verbTo try to persuade a politician or official to support a particular cause or decision.

Lobby in a sentence

• noun

  The hotel lobby was crowded with guests waiting to check in.

• noun

  The farming lobby pushed hard for changes to the subsidy rules.

• verb

  Residents plan to lobby the council for a new pedestrian crossing.

• noun

  We agreed to meet in the office lobby at nine o'clock.

• noun

  A powerful gun lobby opposed the new legislation.

• verb

  The charity continues to lobby ministers for better funding.

Where does lobby come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Medieval Latin lobia or lobium, which described a covered walkway, a gallery, or a portico attached to a building such as a monastery cloister. That Latin form was itself borrowed from a Germanic source related to the same root that gave English 'lodge', literally a shelter or arbour. English picked the word up in the sixteenth century to mean an entrance hall or large waiting room, particularly the long corridors and antechambers of the Houses of Parliament. Because members of the public and interested parties would gather in those very halls to buttonhole politicians and press their case, the word stretched in the nineteenth century to mean the act of trying to influence lawmakers, and then to the organised groups who do so. The double 'b' and the final 'y' simply preserve the short vowel sound and the old Latin ending, which is the small spelling point worth remembering.

How the word is built

• lobb- (from Medieval Latin lobia: covered walk, gallery)
• -y (noun ending)