hall

Etymology

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.

noun

1. A corridor; a hallway.
   The drinking fountain was out in the hall.
   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. 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 13, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
2. A large meeting room.
   The hotel had three halls for conferences, and two were in use by the convention.
3. A manor house (originally because a magistrate's court was held in the hall of his mansion).
   The duke lived in a great hall overlooking the sea.
4. A building providing student accommodation at a university.
   The student government hosted several social events so that students from different halls would intermingle.
5. The principal room of a secular medieval building.
6. (obsolete) Cleared passageway through a crowd, as for dancing.
7. A place for special professional education, or for conferring professional degrees or licences.
   a Divinity Hall; Apothecaries' Hall
8. (India) A living room.
9. (Oxbridge) A college's canteen, which is often but not always coterminous with a traditional hall.
10. (Oxbridge slang) A meal served and eaten at a college's hall.