Lodging

How to spell lodging

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce lodging

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does lodging mean?

1. nounA temporary place to stay or sleep, especially rented rooms.
2. nounThe act of staying or being housed somewhere temporarily.

Lodging in a sentence

• The conference fee covers meals and lodging for three nights.

• The company paid for the lodging of all visiting engineers.

• They rented cheap lodging near the train station for the week.

• His expenses included travel and the lodging of his entire team.

Where does lodging come from?

Language of origin: French

This word grows from the verb and noun 'lodge', which English took from the Old French 'loge', meaning a hut, arbour, or covered shelter. That French word in turn came from a Germanic source (the Frankish 'laubja', a shelter made of foliage or leafy branches), so the earliest idea was a rough leafy cover rather than a comfortable room. By the time it settled into Middle English in the 1200s and 1300s, 'lodge' meant to provide or take temporary shelter, and the -ing form named both the act of staying somewhere and the place itself. The same root still shows up in the architectural 'loggia' and in the Masonic 'lodge'. The spelling trap is simple but common: 'lodge' loses its silent final 'e' before -ing, so the soft 'g' sound is held by the 'dg', giving 'lodging' rather than the tempting 'lodgeing'.

How the word is built

• lodg- (from lodge: a shelter or to settle)
• -ing (noun/gerund suffix)