vestibule

Early 17th century from French vestibule (“entrance court”), from Latin vestibulum, from vestiō (“I dress”) (English vest) + -bulum (“location”) (English -ible), from vestis (“clothing”), from Proto-Indo-European *wes-ti(h₂)-, from *wes- (“to be dressed”) (English wear) + Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlom (“instrumental suffix”) (English -ible).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈvɛst.ɪˌbjuːl/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈvɛstəbjul/

vestibule (plural vestibules)

1. (architecture) A passage, hall or room, such as a lobby, between the outer door and the interior of a building. [from the 17th c.]
   • 1813, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Volume 3, Chapter 9,

     Lydia's voice was heard in the vestibule; the door was thrown open, and she ran into the room.

   • 1913, Vestibule (Porch), article in Catholic Encyclopedia,

     The purpose of the vestibule, at least in western Europe, was not to provide a resting-place for penitents, but to deaden the noise outside.

   • 1929 April, H. P. Lovecraft, The Dunwich Horror, Chapter VI, published in Weird Tales,

     Some instinct warned Armitage that what was taking place was not a thing for unfortified eyes to see, so he brushed back the crowd with authority as he unlocked the vestibule door.

2. (rail transport) An enclosed entrance at the end of a railway passenger car.
   • 1912, Electric railway journal, Volume XL, Number 14, page 556,

     The exit side of the front vestibule contains a sliding door.

3. (medicine, anatomy, by extension) Any of a number of body cavities, serving as or resembling an entrance to another bodily space. [from the 18th c.]
   • 1838, Massachusetts Medical Society, New England Surgical Society, Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, Volumes 17-18, page 333,

     The membrane of the vestibule in this animal is thrown into three folds. The margins of these folds, looking towards the vestibule, are approximated, and, following the law which is now known to regulate the formation of hollow tubes, doubtless unite and coalesce in the next higher species of fish.

   • 1920, Jacob Parsons Schaeffer, The Nose, paranasal sinuses, nasolacrimal passageways, and olfactory organ in man; a genetic, developmental, and anatomico-physiological consideration, page 73,

     The Vestibule (vestibulum nasi). — The paired vestibule may be considered an antechamber to the nasal fossa.

   • 2001, René Malek, Cleft Lip and Palate: Lesions, Pathophysiology and Primary Treatment, page 79,

     The incision of the mucosa over the premaxilla is traced a millimetre or two from the furrow that marks the bottom of the barely-defined vestibule.

• vestibular
• vestibuled
• vestibule school

• invest
• vest
• vestment
• vesture
• wear

vestibule (third-person singular simple present vestibules, present participle vestibuling, simple past and past participle vestibuled)

1. (transitive) To furnish with a vestibule or vestibules.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Brander Matthews to this entry?)

• Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967

Borrowed from Latin vestibulum.

• IPA^(key): /vɛs.ti.byl/

vestibule m (plural vestibules)

1. hall, entrance hall
2. vestibule

• veste

• “vestibule” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).