If you are a theater lover or a student, then what a “gallery” is, you most likely know. And if you do not belong to any of these groups, then with this word you may be unfamiliar. But this article can easily explain to you what a gallery is. However, even if you know what this means, this article will still open something new for you.
Meaning of the word
Gallery (obsolete form of "racks") is a tier located above the others in the theater auditorium, there are very cheap seats, their cost is the lowest among the rest. Because of their price, these places are very popular among the poor, mainly among students. Most often, the gallery is the outskirts of the auditorium, located on the sides and at a very unfavorable distance directly from the stage.
Now this word has a couple more meanings, one of them is collective: people occupying the top places. The second phraseological: a gallery also refers to distant places in a student audience.
Origin of the word
The word "gallery" comes from the word "gallery", which appeared in Russian around the beginning of the eighteenth century. It came from German or French, where it looked the same (galerie). That is why it is difficult to determine from which particular language it came to Russian. However, in both French and German, it migrated from the Italian language (galleria). In the original, the word had the meaning of "church porch."
The word "gallery" was first mentioned in Weisman's dictionary in 1731. It is noteworthy that then it was written with two "l" and it had the meaning "upper tier of the building." In the dictionaries of Dahl and Ushakov, the word "gallery" was also written with a doubled "l". Currently, the word “gallery” is used in three meanings, one of which fully coincides with the meaning of the word “gallery”. It arose with the advent of theaters, in which there was a tiered type of hall, namely in the seventeenth century.
An interesting fact: the word "gallery" itself, which is a derogatory form of the word "gallery", began to gain distribution only in the eighties of the nineteenth century. This began to happen due to the fact that the authors of fiction began to use this word quite often.
Conclusion
Now the meaning of the word "gallery" is absolutely known to you. So now, when the teacher in the audience shouts: "Hey there, in the gallery, remove the cards!" You will definitely know who she was referring to. And, if you are not sitting in the back rows, you can safely continue your game.