antechamber

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a small outer room leading into a larger or more important room, often used for waiting

   The guards waited in the antechamber outside the queen's private room.

Borrowed from French antichambre, 'room before another room,' and remodeled in English under the influence of the Latin prefix ante-, 'before,' + chamber. The form thus transparently describes a chamber placed before a principal room.

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