galilee

Meaning

Noun

• A narthex, particularly in the United Kingdom and the Church of England; a vestibule, a fully-enclosed yet porch-like structure, leading to the main body of an English ecclesiastical building.
• In certain Syriac Christian churches, the baptistry.

Origin

• From late Middle English galilie, from Old French galilee, from Medieval Latin galilaea, from Latin Galilaea ("Galilee"). Possibly the allusion is to Galilee being an outlying region of Biblical Palestine.