Other forms: galas
A gala is a grand social occasion with entertainment. A gala dinner, gala night, the summer gala.
In swimming a gala is simply a competition meeting, which surprises people expecting evening dress. The pronunciation splits between gah-la and gay-la in Britain, roughly along the line between the formal sense and the school sports one.
1noungalaA grand social occasion with entertainment.
“The theatre held a charity gala with music, dancing and dinner.”
gala is an occasion.
French gala comes from Italian or Spanish gala, a festive occasion, ultimately from Old French gale, rejoicing. Gallant is a relative.
Old French
gale — rejoicing
Spanish
gala
Italian
gala
French
gala
English, today
gala
Built from
From French gala, or directly from that word's etymon, which is either Italian gala, or Spanish gala, both meaning "festive occasion", and derived from Old French gale (“rejoicing”). (The French word likely kept the final -a to avoid homophony with gale (“scabies”).) Ultimately cognate to gallant and hence probably from Frankish - wala (“good, well”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA