Other forms: galleries
A gallery is the quiet white building where paintings hang for visitors to admire. An art gallery, the National Gallery, a commercial gallery.
A public gallery collects and a commercial one sells, which is a difference the visitor rarely sees. The white walls are a twentieth-century convention meant to remove distraction. A gallery is also a raised seating area, and playing to the gallery means courting the cheap seats. Note that the word's origin is unknown.
1noungalleryA building where paintings are shown.
“We spent a rainy afternoon wandering around the art gallery.”
2nounraisedA raised seating area.
“We watched the debate from the public gallery above the hall.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
gallery is a building or a balcony.
Also accepted in games: art gallery
Medieval Latin galeria meant a long portico. Its own origin is unknown.
Latin
galilea — church porch
Medieval Latin
galeria — gallery
Old French
galerie
Middle French
galerie
Middle English
galery
English, today
gallery
Built from
From Middle English galery, gallerye, from Middle French galerie, gallerie, from Old French galerie, gallerie (“a long portico, a gallery”), from Medieval Latin galeria (“gallery”), of unknown. Perhaps an alteration of Latin galilea (“church porch”), probably from Latin Galilaea, Galilee, region of Israel. More at Galilee.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA