gallery

gallery n Pronc-sp garry [Fr galerie; OED a1500 → (see esp sense 2, 1509 →), but US distribution suggests reinforcement from LaFr] chiefly Gulf States, AR, TX See Map

A porch, veranda, or balcony.

1784 (1925) Washington Diaries 2.283 VA, The dwelling House is to be 36 feet by 24, with a gallery of 7 feet on each side of the House. 1845 (1968) Simms Wigwam & Cabin (1st ser) 109 MS, I threw down the broad-axe . . and went towards the gallery (piazza) where the old man was sitting. 1903 DN 2.314 seMO, Gallery. . . Porch; veranda. 1905 DN 3.80 nwAR, Gallery. . . Veranda, porch, piazza, portico, balcony. 1908 DN 3.314 eAL, wGA, Gallery. . . A veranda or porch. Also called piazza. . . All these terms are used, but gallery is perhaps the commonest in colloquial usage. Front gallery, back gallery, side gallery, are used to designate the position of the veranda. 1911 DN 3.538 eKY. 1916 DN 4.269 New Orleans LA, NC, Gallery. . . Used indiscriminately for: porch, stoop, veranda, balcony. 1923 DN 5.197 swMO, We was a-settin’ out yander on the gallery a-smokin’ an’ a-jawin’ one another. 1931 Faulkner Sanctuary 169, They reached Memphis in midafternoon. . . Popeye turned into a narrow street of smoke-grimed frame houses with tiers of wooden galleries. 1933 AmSp 8.1.31 nwTX, Gallery. Porch. 1938 AmSp 13.319, In the South, as represented by Virginia, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas . . a gallery is always roofed, otherwise is equivalent to porch but belongs rather higher in the social or architectural scale. It is recognized as a local term but is liked and is in general use. 1945 Saxon Gumbo Ya-Ya 156 LA, Creole houses often faced these patios, were built with their backs on the street. . . There were always balconies above—still known as ‘galleries’ in New Orleans. 1954 Armstrong Satchmo 160 LA, The place we lived in had two porches . . but we called them “galleries,” as the word “porch” was unheard of to us then. c1960 Wilson Coll. csKY. 1965–70 DARE (Qu. D17, . . The platform, sometimes with a roof, that’s built on the front or the side of a house) 52 Infs, chiefly Gulf States, AR, TX, Gallery; LA3, Gallery—on old homes; usually across the front; may have upper and lower gallery [FW: [ˈgælɚɪ]; rapid pronc is [ˈgæ:rɪ]]. [DARE Ed: 22 of 53 Infs indicated that this was the older term.] 1983 Gaines Gathering 11 cLA, I went out on the front garry. The Major was all curled up in the swing, sleeping. 1990 Pederson LAGS Regional Matrix 452 Gulf Region, [The map shows 180 instances of gallery, scattered, but chiefly in sAL, MS, LA, eTX.] 2013 White–LePage Sister 37 seLA (as of 1940s) [Black], On Daddy’s porch—the garry as we called it—it was shady in the evenin’.