jacal

American  

[huh-kahl, hah-] / həˈkɑl, hɑ- /

noun

jacales, plural jacals plural

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.

---

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

Immediately he led his horse behind the solitary hut, which was a jacal of bamboo and thatch built under the cliff, and left him there.

From The Missourian by Lyle, Eugene P. (Eugene Percy)

He tied his big dun in a clump of brush on the arroyo, took his Winchester from its scabbard, and carefully approached the Perez jacal.

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

While the Rangers are preparing for their Homeric repast, a group gathered in front of the jacal is occupied with an affair altogether different.

From The Lone Ranche by Reid, Mayne

The exigencies of our travel have bid us take up our abode in that hastily-constructed jacal, or hut built of branches and plastered outside with mud, such as the peon knows cunningly how to contrive.

From Mexico Its Ancient and Modern Civilisation, History, Political Conditions, Topography, Natural Resources, Industries and General Development by Hume, Martin

Over the jacal towered a great pecan tree; and a banana grew graciously beside it, and back of it was a huddle of feathery, waving canes.

From Stories by American Authors, Volume 10 by Various