hall

English

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.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /hɔːl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /hɔl/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /hɑl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔːl
• Homophone: haul

Noun

hall (plural halls)

1. A corridor; a hallway.

   The drinking fountain was out in the hall.

   • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter XIII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

     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.

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.

   • 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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     But Kate, the prettiest Kate in Christendome, Kate of Kate-hall.

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.
   • 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 Herringman, E. Brewster, T. Bassett, R 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):

     Then cry, a hall, a hall! Come, father Rosin, with your fiddle now.

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.

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Greek: χολ (chol), χωλ (chol), χωλλ (choll)
• → Japanese: ホール (hōru)
• → Korean: 홀 (hol)
• → Russian: холл (xoll)

Translations

Albanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhaɫ/
• Rhymes: -aɫ

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Ottoman Turkish حال (hal, “situation; grief”).

Noun

hall m (plural halle) (colloquial)

1. difficult situation, difficulty, trouble, misery, plight

   Synonyms: ngushticë, mundim, nevojë

2. concern, vexing issue

   Synonym: shqetësim

Derived terms

Adverb

hall (colloquial)

1. badly, wrongly

   Synonym: keq

   hall kështu, hall ashtu. ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)

References

• “hall”, in FGJSSH: Fjalor i gjuhës së sotme shqipe [Dictionary of the modern Albanian language]‎ (in Albanian), 1980, page 643ab
• Bufli, G., Rocchi, L. (2021) “hall¹”, in A historical-etymological dictionary of Turkisms in Albanian (1555–1954), Trieste: Edizioni Università di Trieste, page 184f.
• Mann, S. E. (1948) “hall”, in An Historical Albanian–English Dictionary, London: Longmans, Green & Co., page 153a
• Meyer, G. (1891) “hał”, in Etymologisches Wörterbuch der albanesischen Sprache [Etymological Dictionary of the Albanian Language] (in German), Strasbourg: Karl J. Trübner, →DOI, page 145

Further reading

• Orel, Vladimir E. (1998) “hall”, in Albanian Etymological Dictionary, Leiden, Boston, Köln: Brill, →ISBN, page 141f.

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Ottoman Turkish حل (hal, “solution”).

Noun

hall m (plural halle) (colloquial)

1. solution, way out

   Synonyms: zgjidhje, rrugëdalje

References

• “hall”, in FGJSSH: Fjalor i gjuhës së sotme shqipe [Dictionary of the modern Albanian language]‎ (in Albanian), 1980, page 643ab
• Bufli, G., Rocchi, L. (2021) “hall²”, in A historical-etymological dictionary of Turkisms in Albanian (1555–1954), Trieste: Edizioni Università di Trieste, page 185

Chinese

Etymology

From English hall.

Pronunciation

Noun

hall

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) assembly hall; auditorium
2. (Hong Kong Cantonese) residence hall; dormitory

Danish

Etymology

Borrowed from English hall. Doublet of hal.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

Noun

hall c (singular definite hallen, plural indefinite haller)

1. hall (a corridor or a hallway)

Inflection

East Central German

Etymology

Compare German hell.

Adjective

hall

1. (Erzgebirgisch) clear, bright, light

   an hallrlichtrn Tooch

   in broad daylight (lit. at bright-light day)

Further reading

• 2020 June 11, Hendrik Heidler, Hendrik Heidler's 400 Seiten: Echtes Erzgebirgisch: Wuu de Hasen Hoosn haaßn un de Hosen Huusn do sei mir drhamm: Das Original Wörterbuch: Ratgeber und Fundgrube der erzgebirgischen Mund- und Lebensart: Erzgebirgisch – Deutsch / Deutsch – Erzgebirgisch‎, 3. geänderte Auflage edition, Norderstedt: BoD – Books on Demand, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 57:

Estonian

Etymology 1

From Proto-Finnic *halla.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhɑlː/,

Noun

hall (genitive halla, partitive halla)

1. frost

Declension

Etymology 2

From Proto-Finnic *halli (compare Finnish halli), from Balto-Slavic. Compare Latvian salnis, Lithuanian šalnis (“off-white, roan”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhɑlʲː/,

Adjective

hall (genitive halli, partitive halli, comparative hallim, superlative kõige hallim)

1. grey (color)

Declension

Derived terms

• hallitama

See also

Etymology 3

German Halle.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhɑlʲː/,

Noun

hall (genitive halli, partitive halli)

1. hall (large room or building)

Declension

Further reading

• hall in Sõnaveeb (Eesti Keele Instituut)

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English hall.

Pronunciation

• ^{(aspirated h)} IPA^(key): /ol/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

hall m (plural halls)

1. hall
   • 2018 July 6, “Bonaparte”, in Elh Kmer (lyrics), Antidote:

     Les keufs barodent
     Parce qu’ils barodent, j’suis caché dans l’hall

     The pigs walk around
     And because they walk around I am hidden in the hall

2. lobby

Further reading

• “hall”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /hal/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -al

Verb

hall

1. singular imperative of hallen
2. (colloquial) first-person singular present of hallen

Hungarian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒlː

Etymology 1

From the conflation of Proto-Uralic *kontale- (compare Old Hungarian hadl (“hear”), Northern Mansi хӯнтлуӈкве (hūntluňkwe), Finnish kuunnella) and Proto-Uralic *kule- (compare Northern Mansi хӯлуӈкве (hūluňkwe) and Finnish kuulla).

Verb

hall

2. (intransitive) to hear (to perceive sounds through the ear)
3. (transitive) to hear (to perceive with the ear)

   Hallottam egy hangot a szobából. ― I heard a sound from the room.

Usage notes

This verb is a member of one of those (few) quasi-homonymous verb pairs that exist both with and without an -ik ending. All (intransitive) suffixed forms of these pairs are identical (sometimes they can even have derived forms that coincide), with the exception of their dictionary form (the third-person singular indicative present, with or without -ik). However, the meaning of these pairs is usually distinct, sometimes unrelated. Examples include (fel)áldoz–(le)áldozik, bán–bánik, (meg)bíz–(meg)bízik, ér–érik, esz (rare)–eszik, hajol–hajlik, (felül)múl–(el)múlik, (hozzá)nyúl–nyúlik, (el)vesz–(el)veszik~(el)vész, and tör–törik (along with their verbal prefixes), hall–hallik (archaic), érez–érzik (archaic), sometimes with some difference: (el)hibáz–hibádzik, (le)torkol–torkollik. Therefore one may well need to check the context and the arguments to ascertain which member of the verb pair is relevant.

Conjugation

Derived terms

(With verbal prefixes):

Etymology 2

Borrowed from German Halle.

Noun

hall (plural hallok)

2. middle-sized, windowless room, entryway, hallway (in a private flat/apartment, with a size not smaller than 8 m² [86 sq ft], with space for people, but without affording them privacy due to its being an entry to other rooms)

   Synonym: előtér

   Coordinate terms: szoba, helyiség, félszoba, alkóv, gardrób, előszoba, hálószoba, nappali

3. lobby, foyer, lounge (e.g. in a hotel or an opera house)

   Synonyms: társalgó, előcsarnok

Declension

Derived terms

References

Further reading

• (to hear): hall in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (‘The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN
• (entryway): hall in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (‘The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN

Ludian

Etymology

From Proto-Finnic *halla, borrowed from Baltic. Cognates include Finnish halla.

Noun

hall

1. frost

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Old Norse hǫll.

Noun

hall m (definite singular hallen, indefinite plural haller, definite plural hallene)

1. a hall (a building or very large room)

Derived terms

• idrettshall
• ishall
• svømmehall

References

• “hall” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /hɑlː/

Etymology 1

From Old Norse hǫll. Akin to English hall.

Noun

hall m (definite singular hallen, indefinite plural hallar, definite plural hallane)
hall f (definite singular halla, indefinite plural haller, definite plural hallene)

1. a hall (a building or very large room)

Derived terms

• idrettshall
• ishall
• svømmehall, symjehall

Etymology 2

From Old Norse hallr.

Noun

hall n (definite singular hallet, indefinite plural hall, definite plural halla)

1. a slope, sloping terrain

Derived terms

• bakhall
• grashall

References

• “hall” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English hall.

Pronunciation

Noun

hall m (plural halls)

1. (architecture) lobby; entrance hall (room in a building used for entry from the outside)

   Synonyms: átrio, entrada

Derived terms

• hall da fama

Romanian

Noun

hall n (plural halluri)

1. Obsolete form of hol.

Declension

References

• hall in Academia Română, Micul dicționar academic, ediția a II-a, Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic, 2010. →ISBN

Spanish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English hall.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈxol/
• Rhymes: -ol

Noun

hall m (plural halls)

1. hall, lobby, lounge

Usage notes

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

Further reading

• “hall”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014

Swedish

Etymology

From Old Norse hǫll, from Proto-Germanic *hallō, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel-. Compare English hall. Related to Latin cella and English cellar.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /hal/

• audio

  (file)

Noun

hall c

1. a hallway
2. a lounge
3. a corridor
4. an entryway
5. short for any of the words:
   • simhall
   • ishall
   • sporthall
   • verkstadshall
   • mässhall

Usage notes

Most commonly refers to a small room just inside the front door of a residential building, where shoes and outerwear are taken off or put on.

Declension

References