Lodge

How to spell lodge

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce lodge

What does lodge mean?

1. nounA small house or cabin, often used for holidays, hunting, or as a gatehouse, or the local branch of a fraternal society.
2. verbTo formally submit or place a document, claim, or complaint on official record.
3. verbTo become firmly fixed or stuck in a particular place.

Lodge in a sentence

• noun

  The ski lodge had a roaring fire and a view of the slopes.

• verb

  She decided to lodge a formal complaint with the council.

• verb

  A fish bone can lodge in your throat if you eat too quickly.

• noun

  The gardener lived in a small lodge beside the estate gates.

• verb

  You must lodge your tax return before the deadline.

• verb

  The bullet had lodge deep in the wooden beam.

Where does lodge come from?

Language of origin: French

Lodge came into English in the 1200s from the Old French word loge, which meant a hut, an arbour, or a covered walkway. That French word was itself borrowed from a Germanic source, the Frankish laubja, meaning a shelter made of foliage or a leafy bower, a sense tied to the same root that gives us 'leaf'. The earliest English uses described a small temporary dwelling or hunting hut set apart from a main house, and from there the meaning broadened to gatehouses, porters' cabins, and the meeting places of fraternal societies such as the Freemasons. The verb developed naturally from the noun: to lodge first meant to provide or take shelter, then to settle or fix something firmly in place, and later, in formal English, to place a document or complaint officially on record. The silent 'd' and the soft '-dge' ending both reflect the French route into English, which is why the spelling looks heavier than the short sound suggests.

How the word is built

• lodge (a single root from Old French loge: hut, shelter); no prefix or suffix