Doorkeeping

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. The duties and responsibilities of a person who guards or controls access through a door or entrance
2. The work of managing entry to a place by admitting or refusing people at a threshold
3. The occupation or practice of watching over a doorway and deciding who may pass through

Etymology: Doorkeeping is a plain compound: "door" plus "keeping," the gerund of the verb "keep" in its old sense of guarding or watching over something. The noun "keeping" has meant guardianship or custody since Old English, so a doorkeeper was literally someone who kept watch over a door. "Door" itself comes from Old English "duru," which is a word of the same ancestry as Latin "foris" and Greek "thyra," both meaning door or gate. The "-keeping" element is the one with the richer history. In Middle English, "keeping" could mean protection, charge or possession, and it survives in phrases like "in safe keeping." Pairing it with "door" produced a term that was used in literal senses for the person or work of guarding an entrance, and later in figurative senses for anyone who controls access to a place or group.

Synonyms: guarding, gatekeeping