What is "hall"

Hall \Hall\ (h[add]l), n. [OE. halle, hal, AS. heal, heall; akin to D. hal, OS. & OHG. halla, G. halle, Icel. h["o]ll, and prob. from a root meaning, to hide, conceal, cover. See Hell, Helmet.]

1. A building or room of considerable size and stateliness, used for public purposes; as, Westminster Hall, in London.

2. 1. The chief room in a castle or manor house, and in early times the only public room, serving as the place of gathering for the lord's family with the retainers and servants, also for cooking and eating. It was often contrasted with the bower, which was the private or sleeping apartment.

      Full sooty was her bower and eke her hall.
      --Chaucer. Hence, as the entrance from outside was directly into the hall:

   2. A vestibule, entrance room, etc., in the more elaborated buildings of later times. Hence:

   3. Any corridor or passage in a building.

3. A name given to many manor houses because the magistrate's court was held in the hall of his mansion; a chief mansion house.
   --Cowell.

4. A college in an English university (at Oxford, an unendowed college).

5. The apartment in which English university students dine in common; hence, the dinner itself; as, hall is at six o'clock.

6. Cleared passageway in a crowd; -- formerly an exclamation. [Obs.] ``A hall! a hall!''
   --B. Jonson.

   Syn: Entry; court; passage. See Vestibule.

Old English heall "place covered by a roof, spacious roofed residence, temple, law-court," from Proto-Germanic *hallo "covered place, hall" (cognates: Old Saxon, Old High German halla, German halle, Dutch hal, Old Norse höll "hall;" Old English hell, Gothic halja "hell"), from PIE root *kel- (2) "to hide, conceal" (see cell). Sense of "entry, vestibule" evolved 17c., at a time when the doors opened onto the main room of a house. Older sense preserved in town hall, music hall, etc., and in university dormitory names. Hall of fame attested by 1786 as an abstract concept; in sporting sense first attested 1901, in reference to Columbia College.

n. A corridor; a hallway.

1. n. an interior passage or corridor onto which rooms open; "the elevators were at the end of the hall" [syn: hallway]

2. a large entrance or reception room or area [syn: anteroom, antechamber, entrance hall, foyer, lobby, vestibule]

3. a large room for gatherings or entertainment; "lecture hall"; "pool hall"

4. a college or university building containing living quarters for students [syn: dormitory, dorm, residence hall, student residence]

5. the large room of a manor or castle [syn: manor hall]

6. English writer whose novel about a lesbian relationship was banned in Britain for many years (1883-1943) [syn: Radclyffe Hall, Marguerite Radclyffe Hall]

7. United States child psychologist whose theories of child psychology strongly influenced educational psychology (1844-1924) [syn: G. Stanley Hall, Granville Stanley Hall]

8. United States chemist who developed an economical method of producing aluminum from bauxite (1863-1914) [syn: Charles Martin Hall]

9. United States explorer who led three expeditions to the Arctic (1821-1871) [syn: Charles Francis Hall]

10. United States astronomer who discovered Phobos and Deimos (the two satellites of Mars) (1829-1907) [syn: Asaph Hall]

11. a large and imposing house [syn: mansion, mansion house, manse, residence]

12. a large building used by a college or university for teaching or research; "halls of learning"

13. a large building for meetings or entertainment

The meanings attributed to the word hall have varied over the centuries, as social practices have changed. The word derives from the Old Teutonic (hallâ), where it is associated with the idea of covering or concealing. In modern German it is Halle where it refers to a building but Saal where it refers to a large public room though the distinction is blurred:( Halle (Architektur) (de)). The latter may arise from a genitive form of the former. The French salle is borrowed from the German.

Hall can mean:

• Hall, architectural term
• Hall (concept), for the development of the meaning of the word
• Hall (surname)

Hall was an American racing car constructor. Hall cars competed in one FIA World Championship race - the 1951 Indianapolis 500.

In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age, a mead hall was such a simple building and was the residence of a lord and his retainers. Later, rooms were partitioned from it, and the space next to the front door became the entrance hall. Today, the (entrance) hall of a house is the space next to the front door or vestibule leading to the rooms directly and/or indirectly. Where the hall inside the front door of a house is elongated, it may be called a passage, corridor (from Spanish corredor used in El Escorial and 100 years later in Castle Howard) or hallway.

Hall is a lunar crater named in honor of American astronomer Asaph Hall that is located in the southeast part of the Lacus Somniorum, a lunar mare in the northeast part of the Moon. This feature can be found to the east of the prominent walled plain Posidonius. Just to the south, and nearly attached to the southern rim of Hall is the smaller crater G. Bond.

This crater formation has been significantly disintegrated by smaller impacts around the outer rim, leaving a wall that is deeply notched and incised. There is a gap in the western rim through which the interior has been flooded and resurfaced by layers of basaltic lava. Thus all that remains of the original crater is an irregular, crescent-shaped formation along the southern edge of the Lacus Somniorum. The southern rim is attached to the rough terrain to the south of the mare, and the irregular satellite crater G. Bond G is attached to the southeast rim.

Passing across the open mouth of this crater is the rille named Rima G. Bond (after the nearby crater), a wide cleft in the surface of the mare. This feature begins to the north of Hall and travels to the south-southwest, gradually bending back to the south–southeast. It passes through a section of raised terrain along the southern edge of the mare, and this rise joins the southern rim of Hall and encloses G. Bond.

Hall is a common surname of Scottish origin. Hall means "kind" and "forgiving". This originates from the belief that Viking thanes were eternally benevolent to those that worked within their halls. The name was used to indicate the main occupation of the individual, in a role such as a servant or chamberlain. Hall is the 22nd most common surname in the United Kingdom. Within the United States, it is ranked as the 26th most common surname.

Hall is very uncommon as a given name, but can be found as a family surname of many people in English speaking countries around the world, especially in North America and Australia as their ancestors would have been descendants of the Celtic nations.

The Hall Cycle and Plating company was a maker of Cycle cars in Waco, Texas from 1914-1915.

Hall (first name and dates unknown) was an English first-class cricketer who was active in the 1790s playing for Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). He is recorded in one first-class match in 1797, totalling 11 runs with a highest score of 11.