hall

Meaning

Noun

• A corridor; a hallway.
• A meeting room.
• A manor house (originally because a magistrate's court was held in the hall of his mansion).
• A building providing student accommodation at a university.
• The principal room of a secular medieval building.
• Cleared passageway through a crowd, as for dancing.
• A place for special professional education, or for conferring professional degrees or licences.
• A living room.

Origin

• From Middle English halle, from Old English heall ("hall, dwelling, house; palace, temple; law-court"), from Proto-West Germanic *hallu, from Proto-Germanic *hallō ("hall"), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- ("to hide, conceal").
• Cognate with Scots hall, haw ("hall"), Dutch hal ("hall"), German Halle ("hall"), Norwegian hall ("hall"), Swedish hall ("hall"), Icelandic höll ("palace"), Latin cella ("room, cell"), Sanskrit शाला ("house, mansion, hall").