
[Middle English halle, large residence, from Old English heall.]
WORD HISTORY The halls of academe and city hall remind us that what we commonly mean by the word hall, "a passageway, an entrance room," represents a shrunken version of what hall once commonly designated. Going back to the Indo-European root *kel-, "to cover," the Old English word heall, ancestor of our hall, referred to "a large place covered by a roof, whether a royal residence, official building, large private residence, or large room in a residence where the public life of the household is carried on." These senses and related ones are still in use, as attested by compounds such as music hall and study hall. Our common use of the term hall for a vestibule or a corridor harks back to medieval times when the hall was the main public room of a residence and people lived much less privately than now. As private rooms in houses took on the importance they have today, the hall lost its function. Hall also had come to mean any large room, and the vestibule was at one time one of the main sitting rooms in a house, but this sort of room has largely disappeared also, and hall has become the designation for the small vestibule of today as well as for an entrance passage or any passageway.
1. The main room of a medieval or post-medieval house that served as the center of family life, usually combining the functions of a kitchen, dining room, living room, and workroom for activities such as spinning, sewing, and candle making; often called a keeping room; also see hall-and-parlor plan.
2. An imposing entrance hall; also called a living hall.
3. A large room for assembly, entertainment, and the like.
4. A small, relatively primitive dwelling having a one-room plan.
5. A manor house.
6. A corridor.
1. Chief room of a house, mainly used for ceremonial and domestic life. With the decline in communal life since the Middle Ages, the term has been transferred to denote a lobby entrance.
2. A large single-roomed building used for domestic accommodation and ceremonial or communal purposes.
Bibliography
See J. A. Gotch, Growth of the English House (1909).
The Hall was the place where the great lord used to eat.
Tutor's tip: What did Saul "haul" (carry or cart) to the small "hall" (chamber or gallery)?
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In architecture, a hall is fundamentally a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age, a mead hall was such a simple building and was the residence of a lord and his retainers. Later, rooms were partitioned from it, so that today the hall of a house is the space inside the front door through which the rooms are reached....
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Dansk (Danish)
n. - hall, vestibule, forhal, entre, korridor, herregård
idioms:
Nederlands (Dutch)
hal, portaal, gang, overloop, zaal, rechts-/ eetzaal, openbaar gebouw, studentenhuis, groot herenhuis, gildenhuis, aankomst-/ vertrekhal
Français (French)
n. - hall, couloir, salle, (Admin) mairie, (Aviat) hall (d'arrivée/de départ), (Univ) résidence universitaire, (Univ) réfectoire, manoir
idioms:
Deutsch (German)
n. - Halle, Diele, Korridor, Herrenhaus, Saal, Studentenheim, Speisesaal
idioms:
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - αίθουσα, δημόσιο κτήριο, τραπεζαρία, χολ, είσοδος, προθάλαμος, αίθουσα συγκεντρώσεων ή συναυλιών
idioms:
Italiano (Italian)
atrio, ingresso, sala, casa dello studente
idioms:
Português (Portuguese)
n. - saguão (m), salão (m)
idioms:
Русский (Russian)
большое помещение, университетская столовая, административное здание, холл, вестибюль, помещичья усадьба
idioms:
Español (Spanish)
n. - vestíbulo, hall, corredor, pasillo, entrada, sala, salón, casa de estudiantes, sala de espera de los aeropuertos
idioms:
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - entré, sal, herrgård, klubb(lokal), (mindre) college, (middag i) collegematsal, (pl.) varieté(teater)
中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
门厅, 会堂, 走廊
idioms:
中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 門廳, 會堂, 走廊
idioms:
한국어 (Korean)
n. - 복도, 현관의 넓은 방, 홀, 강당
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 玄関の広間, 玄関, 廊下, 公的な建物, ホール, 事務所, 寮, 特別会館, 集会場, 大邸宅, 大広間, 会堂
idioms:
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) قصر ملك أو نبيل أو حجرة الجلوس, الرئيسيه فيه, بيت ريفي لصاحب أطيان, مبنى فخم لأغراض عامه, مبنى في جامعه لغرض معين, كليه أو جزء من كليه في بعض الجامعات, قاعه الطعام العامه في اللغه الإنجليزيه, ردهه, رواق, قاعه كبيرة للإجتماعات
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - אולם, פרוזדור, חדר-אוכל, בית, מעון, בניין, בית-אחוזה גדול (בריטניה), בית ציבורי גדול