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gable

[gey-buh l]
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noun Architecture.
  1. the portion of the front or side of a building enclosed by or masking the end of a pitched roof.
  2. a decorative member suggesting a gable, used especially in Gothic architecture.
  3. Also called gable wall. a wall bearing a gable.
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Origin of gable

1325–75; Middle English < Old French (of Germanic orig.); cognate with Old Norse gafl; compare Old English gafol, geafel a fork
Related formsga·ble·like, adjective

Gable

[gey-buh l]
noun
  1. (William) Clark,1901–60, U.S. film actor.
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Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

houseceilingparapetcoveringshelterslatecrowndomecupolasummitraftercanopytrussgablepalategambrel

Examples from the Web for gable

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • One of the ground-floor windows at the gable end of the house was open.

    Casanova's Homecoming

    Arthur Schnitzler

  • The gable walls of the transepts and the western wall are also Turkish.

  • You'll find him lying in the garret at the west end of the gable—drunk.

    A Son of Hagar

    Sir Hall Caine

  • If he heard a sigh from the dairy loft, he sat down against the gable and groaned.

    The Manxman

    Hall Caine

  • Always used of the gable loft, you know, and the wind above the thatch.

    The Manxman

    Hall Caine

British Dictionary definitions for gable

gable

noun
  1. the triangular upper part of a wall between the sloping ends of a pitched roof (gable roof)
  2. a triangular ornamental feature in the form of a gable, esp as used over a door or window
  3. the triangular wall on both ends of a gambrel roof
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Derived Formsgabled, adjectivegable-like, adjective

Word Origin

C14: Old French gable, probably from Old Norse gafl; related to Old English geafol fork, Old High German gibil gable

Gable

noun
  1. (William) Clark. 1901–60, US film actor. His films include It Happened One Night (1934), San Francisco (1936), Gone with the Wind (1939), Mogambo (1953), and The Misfits (1960)
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for gable

n.

mid-14c., from Old French gable "facade, front, gable," from Old Norse gafl "gable, gable-end" (in north of England, the word is probably directly from Norse), probably from Proto-Germanic *gablaz "top of a pitched roof" (cf. Middle Dutch ghevel, Dutch gevel, Old High German gibil, German Geibel, Gothic gibla "gable"), from PIE *ghebhel.

Cognates seem to be words meaning both "fork" (cf. Old English gafol, geafel, Old Saxon gafala, Dutch gaffel, Old High German gabala "pitchfork," German Gabel "fork;" Old Irish gabul "forked twig") and "head" (cf. Old High German gibilla, Old Saxon gibillia "skull").

Possibly the primitive meaning of the words may have been 'top', 'vertex'; this may have given rise to the sense of 'gable', and this latter to the sense of 'fork', a gable being originally formed by two pieces of timber crossed at the top supporting the end of the roof-tree." [OED]

Related: Gabled; gables.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper