Halle

Forms

Halle f (genitive Halle, plural Hallen)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German halle, inherited from Old High German halla (“temple; market hall”), inherited from Proto-West Germanic *hallu, inherited from Proto-Germanic *hallō (“hall, porch supported by columns”).^[2][3][1][4] The same word is Old Saxon halla (“hall”), Middle Low German halle, Middle Dutch halle, Old English heall and Old Norse hǫll, and today Dutch hal, English hall, Swedish hall and Icelandic höll.^[2][3]

Outside Germanic, words for rooms and buildings can be compared, closest of all Latin cella (“storeroom, small room”);^[2] Pfeifer adds, perhaps, Ancient Greek καλιά (kalīā́, “hut, granary”) and, with a lengthened vowel, Sanskrit शाला (śā́lā, “building, house, room”).^[3] Pfeifer and the Duden derive the word from the root Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to hide, cover”), making it the place that shelters, and relate it to hehlen, hüllen and Helm;^[3][5][6] Kluge gives this root only as a possibility.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German halla occurs in the Murbach Hymns (810–817), glossing Latin templum, and in a glossary as halle for mercatum “market”.^[4][7][8] The element is also found in place names.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The word was rare in Old and Middle High German;^[3][9] Central German sources of the 13th century use it of a room where goods were sold and of the porch of a public building or church.^[3][9] It became more widely known through Luther's Bible, but only in the 18th century did it become general, perhaps under the influence of Shakespeare and the Edda;^[3] Paul names English hall in Ossian and Old Norse hǫll in the Edda, with Klopstock in 1747 as the first to revive it in literature.^[9] In earlier times a Halle, unlike a Saal, was a half-open building whose roof rested on pillars or columns.^[5]

After English hall and French halle it came to name large interior rooms and whole buildings, and since the 19th century it has formed many compounds such as Kunsthalle, Markthalle and Turnhalle.^[9] English hall church, for a German type of Gothic church, and beer hall (1882) are counted among German loans.^[10]

Timeline

• 810–817 – Old High German halla “temple” in the Murbach Hymns.^[7][4]
• 13th century – Central German halle for a sales room and a porch.^[3]
• 16th century – Spread by Luther's Bible.^[3][9]
• 1747 – Klopstock revives the word in literature.^[9]
• 19th century – Compounds such as Kunsthalle, Markthalle, Turnhalle.^[9]
• 1882 – English beer hall is recorded.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A large building consisting mainly of one high room, such as a factory hall, an exhibition hall or a sports hall: Die Messe belegt drei Hallen.^[6][1]
2. A large hall in a building, used as an entrance, lobby or common room: in der Halle des Bahnhofs.^[6][11]

Word family

• Vorhalle
• Bahnhofshalle
• Markthalle
• Turnhalle
• Kunsthalle
• Hallenbad

Related words

• hehlen
• hüllen
• Hülle
• Zelle
• Keller
• English hall

Usage notes

Middle High German had a separate halle “place for making and storing salt”, from hal “salt works”.^[12][13] The name of the city of Halle is of unclear origin; it is traditionally linked with the river Saale and with salt, but has also been derived from the word for “hall”.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 388
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
4. ^ a b c d Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 4, 769
5. ^ a b Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2014), 5th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin / Mannheim / Zürich: Dudenverlag, p. 364
6. ^ a b c Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 139
9. ^ a b c d e f g Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
10. ^ a b Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
11. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
12. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
13. ^ Lexer, Matthias (1872–1878), Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 1149