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hall
The definition of a hall is a central room, public room or passageway between rooms.
(noun)- An example of a hall is a large public room used for events and dancing.
- An example of a hall is a passageway from a living room to a bedroom.
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See hall in Webster's New World College Dictionary
noun
- Obsolete
- the great central room in the dwelling of a king or chieftain, where banquets, games, etc. were held
- the dwelling itself
- the main dwelling on the estate of a baron, squire, etc.
- a building containing public offices or the headquarters of an organization, for transacting business, holding meetings, etc.
- a large public or semipublic room for gatherings, entertainments, etc.
- a college dormitory, classroom building, eating center, etc.
- a passageway or room between the entrance and the interior of a building; vestibule, foyer, or lobby
- a passageway or area onto which rooms open
Origin: ME halle < OE heall (akin to Ger halle), lit., that which is covered < base of helan, to cover < IE base *kel-, to cover > hell, L celare, to conceal
- Hall, Charles Martin 1863-1914; U.S. chemist: discovered electrolytic process for reducing aluminum from bauxite
- Hall, G(ranville) Stanley 1844-1924; U.S. psychologist & educator
See hall in American Heritage Dictionary 4
noun
- A corridor or passageway in a building.
- A large entrance room or vestibule in a building; a lobby.
- a. A building for public gatherings or entertainments.b. The large room in which such events are held.
- A building used for the meetings, entertainments, or living quarters of a fraternity, sorority, church, or other social or religious organization.
- a. A building belonging to a school, college, or university that provides classroom, dormitory, or dining facilities.b. A large room in such a building.c. The group of students using such a building: The entire hall stayed up late studying.d. Chiefly British A meal served in such a building.
- The main house on a landed estate.
- a. The castle or house of a medieval monarch or noble.b. The principal room in such a castle or house, used for dining, entertaining, and sleeping.
Origin:
Origin: Middle English halle, large residence
Origin: , from Old English heall; see kel-1 in Indo-European roots
. 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.
American explorer who led three expeditions to the Arctic (1860-1862, 1864-1869, and 1871).
, Granville Stanley 1844-1924.
American psychologist who established an experimental psychology laboratory at Johns Hopkins University (1882), founded child psychology, and profoundly influenced educational psychology.
, (Marguerite) Radclyffe 1886?-1943.
British writer whose novel The Well of Loneliness (1928) was originally banned as obscene in Great Britain and the United States.
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