Also α. 7–8 vestible. [ad. L. vestibulum (hence F. vestibule, OF. vestible, It., Sp. and Pg. vestibulo), entrance-court, fore-court, entrance. The origin of the L. word is uncertain.]
1. In reference to ancient times: The enclosed or partially enclosed space in front of the main entrance of a Roman or Greek house or building; an entrance-court or fore-court.
In some instances approximating to next.
α. 1623. Cockeram, I. Vestible, the porch of a dore.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Vestible,… a void place without the door, a Porch, an Entry.
1753. Chambers’ Cycl., Suppl., s.v. Atrium, Some have mistakenly confounded the Atrium with the porch or vestible, from which it was distinct.
1796. Burney, Mem. Metastasio, II. 163. Porticos, vestibles of temples, and other public buildings.
β. a. 1751. Bolingbroke, Study Hist., ii. (1752), I. 19. The citizens of Rome placed the images of their ancestors in the vestibules of their houses.
1770. Langhorne, Plutarch (1851), II. 1081/1. This tyrant … would not suffer his guards to do duty in the palace, but only in the vestibule and porticos about it.
1791. Cowper, Iliad, XI. 942. While ye on preparation of the feast Attended both, Ulysses and myself Stood in the vestibule.
1819. Keats, Lamia, II. 163. He met within the murmurous vestibule His young disciple.
1819. Shelley, Cyclops, 219. [To] Throw you as ballast into the ship’s hold, And then deliver you, a slave, to move Enormous rocks, or found a vestibule.
1891. Farrar, Darkn. & Dawn, i. In its vestibule was a bronze statue, fifty feet high.
b. In modern usage: A chamber or hall immediately between the entrance-door and the interior of a building or house (usually one of some size), to which it gives admittance; an ante-chamber, entrance-hall, or lobby.
α. 1730. Bailey (fol.), A Vestible is also used for a Kind of little Anti-Chamber before the entrance of an ordinary Apartment.
1747. in Nairne Peerage Evidence (1874), 80. In the low vestible ane old clock.
β. 1756. Mrs. Delany, in Autobiog. & Corr. (1861), III. 437. Her apartment is the prettiest thing I ever saw, consisting of a skylight antechamber or vestibule, adorned in the Gothic way.
1797. Mrs. Radcliffe, Italian, i. He was soon admitted to a small vestibule, where he found Bianchi winding balls of silk.
1828. Ann. Reg., 76/1. A scene almost of butchery took place in the staircases and vestibules.
1862. Miss Braddon, Lady Audley, xxxvi. The clock in the vestibule struck nine as Robert opened the library-door.
1881. Owen, in Nature, No. 618. 425. The impressive and rather gloomy vestibule which leads to the great hall.
Comb. 1887. Pall Mall G., 11 Nov., 2/2. This room opens into a long and lofty vestibule-like chamber.
c. transf. and fig.
Freq. from c. 1800; usu. const. of, as in the first group.
(a) 1755. Young, Centaur, ii. Wks. 1757, IV. 141. The dark, solemn approaches to, or dismal vestibules of, the grave.
1785. Burns, Common-pl. Bk., Oct. If ever any young man, in the vestibule of the world, chance to throw his eye over these pages [etc.].
1800. Med. Jrnl., III. 254. There can be no very great deviation, while we remain at the vestibule of useful inquiry.
1833. H. Coleridge, Lives Northerns, 3. A single copy of verses [by Marvell] … keeping its station in the vestibule of Paradise Lost.
1861. J. G. Holland, Less. Life, iii. 48. To-day we stand in life’s vestibule.
1875. Grindon, Life, i. 4. True figurative language is … the vestibule of philosophy.
(b) 1781. Harris, Philol. Enq., II. iv. 106. Looking upon Knowledge … to pass into the Mansions of the Mind thro’ Language, they were careful … not to offend in the Vestibule.
a. 1848. R. W. Hamilton, Rew. & Punishm., viii. (1853), 379. The present is the vestibule to a boundless existence.
1850. Maurice, Mor. & Met. Philos. (ed. 2), 131. One large class of the Platonic Dialogues, which are the induction or vestibule to the rest.
1873. Symonds, Grk. Poets, i. 3. Language and Mythology form the vestibules and outer courts to Homer, Pheidias, Lycurgus.
d. An enclosed and covered-in portion at either end of a railway carriage, serving as a means of passage from one carriage to another. Also attrib. in vestibule train (see VESTIBULED a.). Orig. U.S.
1889. Daily News, 7 May, 7/3. Communication was then established by throwing a board across, and privacy secured by stretching a piece of canvas above to connect the two roofs. It was the vestibule train principle established unexpectedly in a new quarter.
1890. T. M. Cooley, etc., Railways Amer., 246. A perfectly enclosed vestibule of handsome architectural appearance between the cars.
1896. Daily News, 14 July, 9/7. The new vestibule East Coast train.
2. Anat. (and Zool.). One or other of various cavities or hollows regarded as forming an approach or entrance to another, usually a larger or more important, part.
A number of these, as vestibule of the aorta, larynx, mouth, pharynx, are specified in recent encyclopædic and medical Dicts.
a. The osseous cavity that forms the central portion of the labyrinth of the ear and is situated between the tympanum and the internal auditory canal, immediately behind the cochlea.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Ear, The Labyrinth … is divided into three Parts; the first called the Vestibule.
1782. A. Monro, Anat., 72. The other [hole] ends in several very small canals that allow a passage to the branches of the portio mollis … into the vestibule and cochlea.
1836–9. Todd’s Cycl. Anat., II. 530/1. Of the compartments of the osseous labyrinth, the vestibule lies in the middle, the semi-circular canals behind it, and the cochlea in front.
1856. Todd & Bowman, Phys. Anat., II. 96. The essential part of the organ of hearing is the vestibule.
1884. Coues, N. Amer. Birds, 188. The bony labyrinth consists of an irregular central cavity, the vestibule.
b. (See quot. 1857.)
1841. Ramsbotham, Obstetr. Medicine, 55. The Meatus Urinarius,… which is the canal leading to the bladder, is situated at the further extremity of the vestibule.
1857. Bullock, Cazeaux’ Midwif., 43. The vestibule is a small triangular space placed at the upper part of the vulva.
1883. Duncan, Clin. Lect. Dis. Wom. (ed. 2), xvii. 167. I call them inflammations of the pudendum; but they are often called inflammations of the vulva, and sometimes of the vestibule.
c. Membranous vestibule, the membranous sacs contained within the osseous vestibule of the ear.
1857. Dunglison, Med. Lex., s.v., There is also another membrane, constituting the membranous vestibule, but it is not an exact imitation of the osseous cavity.
d. Zool. = VESTIBULUM 2 b. rare.
1875. Huxley & Martin, Elem. Biol., 87. When fæcal matters are discharged, they make their way out by an aperture which is temporarily formed in the floor of this vestibule.
