Lodge

Lodge, a dwelling-place, small and usually temporary, a hut, booth or tent. The word was in M. Eng. logge, from Fr. loge, arbour, in modern French a hut; also box in a theatre; the French word, like the Italian loggia, came from the Med. Lat. laubia or lobia, the sheltered promenade in a cloister, from which English “lobby” is derived. The Latin is of Teutonic origin from the word which survives in the Mod. Ger. Laube, an arbour, but which earlier was used for any hut, booth, &c. The word is probably ultimately from the root which appears in “leaf,” meaning a rough shelter of foliage or boughs. The word is especially used of a house built either in a forest or away from habitation, where people stay for the purpose of sport, as a “hunting lodge,” “shooting lodge,” &c. The most frequent use of the word is of a small building, usually placed at the entrance to an estate or park and inhabited by a dependant of the owner. In the same sense the word means the room or box inhabited by the porter of a college, factory or public institution. Among Freemasons and other societies the “lodge” is the name given to the meeting-place of the members of the branch or district, and is applied to the members collectively as “a meeting of the lodge.” The governing body of the Freemasons presided over by the grand master is called the “Grand Lodge.” At the university of Cambridge the house where the head of a college lives is called the “lodge.” Formerly the word was used of the den or lair of an animal, but is now only applied to that of the beaver and the otter. It is also applied to the tent of a North American Indian, a wigwam or tepee, and to the number of inhabitants of such a tent. In mining the term is used of a subterraneous reservoir made at the bottom of the pit, or at different levels in the shaft for the purpose of draining the mine. It is used also of a room or landing-place next to the shaft, for discharging ore, &c.