gallery [LME] Galilee, the northern region of ancient Palestine where Jesus lived, may be the ultimate source of gallery, which entered English from Italian galleria ‘gallery’, or ‘church porch’. Its medieval Latin source was perhaps an alteration of Galilea ‘Galilee’, which was used as the name for a porch or chapel at the church entrance. The idea behind this was probably that the porch was at the end of the church furthest away from the altar, just as Galilee, an outlying portion of the Holy Land, was far from Jerusalem. From the mid 17th century the highest seating in a theatre was called the gallery, and this was where the cheapest seats—and the least refined members of the audience—were found. Hence, to play to the gallery, an expression dating from the late 19th century, is to act in a showy or exaggerated way to appeal to popular taste.