Where did the term “lobbyist” come from?
Richmond, Virginia – 9/21/00 Origins of words are always very difficult to pin down precisely. Most likely, we got the term from the English Parliament, where petitioners would hang out in the corridors and reception rooms outside the chambers in which the legislature met, and try to talk to and persuade individual Members of Parliament to take up their cause as the Members walked in and out of the sessions. The term was in common usage in England by the 1840’s, though its exact origins there are imprecise. However, wherever lawmakers have met — including Federal Hall in New York, the first seat of our U.S. Congress in 1789, and Congress Hall in Philadelphia, hangers-on and both wealthy and desperate petitioners were seen gathering in the rooms around the assembly, some of which were, and are, called “lobbies.” The reception and meeting area behind the House chamber in the Capitol, for example, is referred to as the “Speaker’s Lobby.” Another story has it that the lobby of the Willard
