hall
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /hɔːl/
ipa: /haːl/
ipa: /hɔl/
ipa: /hɑl/
rhymes: -ɔːl
homophone: haul
Forms: form: halls
Etymology: Inherited 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 (śā́lā, “house, mansion, hall”). Doublet of cell and cella.
Senses: examples: text: The drinking fountain was out in the hall.
text: We tiptoed into the house, up the stairs and along the hall into the room where the Professor had been spending so much of his time.
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter XIII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
glosses: A corridor; a hallway.
examples: text: The hotel had three halls for conferences, and two were in use by the convention.
glosses: A large meeting room.
examples: text: The duke lived in a great hall overlooking the sea.
text: But Kate, the prettiest Kate in Christendome, Kate of Kate-hall.
ref: c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
glosses: A manor house (originally because a magistrate's court was held in the hall of his mansion).
examples: text: The student government hosted several social events so that students from different halls would intermingle.
glosses: A building providing student accommodation at a university.
glosses: The principal room of a secular medieval building.
examples: text: Then cry, a hall, a hall! Come, father Rosin, with your fiddle now.
ref: 1633 (first performance), Ben Jonson, “A Tale of a Tub. A Comedy […]”, in The Works of Beniamin Jonson, […] (Third Folio), London: […] Thomas Hodgkin, for H[enry] Herringman, E. Brewster, T. Bassett, R[ichard] Chiswell, M. Wotton, G. Conyers, published 1692, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
glosses: Cleared passageway through a crowd, as for dancing.
examples: text: a Divinity Hall; Apothecaries' Hall
glosses: A place for special professional education, or for conferring professional degrees or licences.
glosses: A living room.
glosses: A college's canteen, which is often but not always coterminous with a traditional hall.
qualifier: Oxbridge slang
glosses: A meal served and eaten at a college's hall.
Derived terms: ancestral hall
assembly hall
audience hall
bachelor's hall
barangay hall
beer hall
BHK
booking hall
chow hall
cinema hall
city hall
cloth hall
concert hall
dancehall
dance hall
dance-hall
dining-hall
dining hall
drill hall
exhibition hall
fire hall
firehall
food hall
Forest Hall
formal hall
gift hall
great hall
guildhall
guild-hall
hallage
hallcest
hall church
hallful
Hall Green
hall house
hallite
Hall i' th' Wood
hall-mark
hallmark
hallmate
hall monitor
hallmote
hall of fame
hall-of-famer
hall of mirrors
hall of residence
hall of shame
hall pass
hallpass
hall porter
hallstand
hall test
hall tree
hallway
Hams Hall
hiring hall
interhall
juvenile hall
Lea Hall
lecture hall
linen hall
Lostock Hall
mead hall
Meadowhall
mess hall
Midge Hall
moot hall
moot-hall
music hall
Newton Hall
Northop Hall
ordination hall
Park Hall
permanent private hall
pool hall
rec hall
recreation hall
residence hall
riding hall
ring-hall
Scale Hall
slaughterhall
sports hall
stair hall
study hall
ticket hall
town hall
village hall
Whitehall
White Hall
woolhall