jacal

American  

[huh-kahl, hah-] / həˈkɑl, hɑ- /

noun

plural

jacales, jacals

1. (in the southwestern U.S. and Mexico) a hut with a thatched roof and walls consisting of thin stakes driven into the ground close together and plastered with mud.

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Etymology

Origin of jacal

1830–40, < Mexican Spanish < Nahuatl xahcalli

Explanation

A jacal is a hut made of poles, mud, and a roof of branches or reeds. To see one, the best places to look are Mexico and the Southwestern United States. Jacales, while having their own unique style, use a building technique common all over the world for hundreds of years: wattle and daub. This type of structure is built by first erecting a frame, usually of wood, and then coating it with a substance that is malleable when wet but solid when dry, such as mud. The roof is typically made of reeds, straw, or woven branches. Jacales are notable for being made with long, thin poles as the primary frame.

Example Sentences

Ned Rutherford answered her knock on the door of the jacal.

From The Sheriff's Son by Raine, William MacLeod

And with clouded brows, sullen, dispirited, they return to the jacal.

From The Lone Ranche by Reid, Mayne

The distance from the nearest pine to the jacal was about thirty feet.

From The Sheriff's Son by Raine, William MacLeod

He had laid aside his sixes—possibly in the jacal of the fair Pancha—and had forgotten them when the passing of the fairer Alvarita had enticed him to her trail.

From Heart of the West [Annotated] by Loewenstein, Joseph E.

Ten minutes later, and they would have found the jacal deserted; for Hamersley and Wilder had made up their minds to set off, taking the traitor along with them.

From The Lone Ranche by Reid, Mayne