gable

Etymology

The word has two sources.^[2][3] The northern form gavel is borrowed from Old Norse gafl (“gable”),^[4][2][5][3] compare Old Swedish gafl, Swedish gavel and Danish gavl.^[4] The southern form gable was probably reinforced by the French word: it is borrowed from Old French gable (“façade, front, gable”), also used in Anglo-Norman,^[4][2][5] recorded in Normandy from the late 12th century,^[4] itself probably from the same Norse word,^[4][3][6] or perhaps from Middle French jable (“bevelled roof timber”), from Latin gabalus (“gallows”).^[4] American Heritage instead considers the Norman French word perhaps Celtic.^[7] The Norse word is an ablaut variant of the base of Middle Dutch ghevel, Dutch gevel, Old High German gibil (“forehead, front”), German Giebel and Gothic 𐌲𐌹𐌱𐌻𐌰 (gibla, “pinnacle”),^[4][8][3] from Proto-Germanic *gablaz (“top of a pitched roof”),^[5] and is related to words meaning "fork": Old English gafol or geafel, gaffel, gabala and Gabel.^[3][8][5][9] These are traced to Proto-Indo-European *ghebh-el- (“head”),^[5][7] also the source of Ancient Greek κεφαλή (kephalḗ, “head”),^[5][4][6] with Old Irish gabul (“forked twig, fork”) and Welsh gafl (“fork”) as further cognates.^[8][5] Barnhart separates a root *ghabhlā for the "fork" words from *ghebhel- for the "head" words.^[2] The Oxford dictionaries explain the link through the two crossed timbers at the top of a gable that supported the end of the roof-tree.^[9][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Barnhart finds the word first in the northern place name Mykelgavel (1338), then as gabell in 1347–48.^[2] The OED's first record of the triangular end of a pitched roof is from 1371, in the Halmota Prioratus Dunelme.^[4] Anglo-Norman gable is recorded from 1315 for the triangular-topped end wall of a building.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The word moved little from its first sense, the triangular section of wall under the end of a ridged roof.^[4] By about 1390, in Piers Plowman, it could mean the whole end wall of a building,^[4][11] and Chaucer used it once, in the Miller's Tale.^[12][11] From 1532 it was used of a decorative feature of the same shape over a door or window.^[4][13] Ayto suggests that the idea behind it was "top" or "summit".^[6] The verb, to give a roof gables, followed in the 18th century (1736), with a rare Scottish use in 1662 for building a gable wall.^[4] In Scotland and northern England the form gavel survived,^[2][14] and the dialects had compounds such as gable-end for the end wall of a house and gable-poles for the poles that held down the thatch of a roof.^[14]

Timeline

• 1338 – in the place name Mykelgavel.^[2]
• 1347–48 – the form gabell.^[2]
• 1371 – the triangular end of a pitched roof.^[4]
• c. 1390 – the end wall of a building, in Piers Plowman.^[4]
• 1532 – a gable-shaped ornament over a window or door.^[4]
• 1736 – verb, to provide a roof with gables.^[4]
• 1848 – verb, of a building, to have gables.^[4][2]
• 1879 – a web of a crankshaft (obsolete by 1929).^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The usually triangular part of a wall at the end of a pitched roof, between the two slopes from the eaves to the ridge: Ivy covered the west gable.^{[7][15][13][4]}
2. The whole end wall of a building with a pitched roof.^[7][15][4]
3. A triangular, usually ornamental feature over a door or window.^[7][13][4]
4. A similar end of a roof that is not triangular, as of a gambrel roof.^[15][13]

Verb

1. To build a roof with gables, or in the form of a gable roof.^[4][2]

Word family

• gabled
• gablelike
• gable end
• gable roof
• gable window

Related words

• cephalic
• gaffle
• yelve

Usage notes

A separate, obsolete gable, a rope or cable (before 1450 to 1681), is a variant of cable.^[4][11] The OED gives a Scottish pronunciation /ˈɡevl/, matching the northern form gavel.^[4]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
7. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
12. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
13. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
15. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster