This week’s theme
Is it a noun or a verb? Both!

This week’s words
assart
rapture
skirr
corbel


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PRONUNCIATION:

(KOR-buhl)

MEANING:

noun:	1. An architectural support projecting from a wall to bear weight.
verb tr.:	1. To arrange (bricks, stones, etc.) in stepped courses to form a corbel.
	2. To support by means of a corbel or corbels.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Old French corbel (little raven), a diminutive of corp or corb (raven), from Latin corvus (raven), apparently alluding to the corbel’s beaklike shape. Earliest documented use: c. 1400 for the noun and 1859 for the verb.

USAGE:

“I stepped behind him into a flickering chamber hung with silks and lit by many candles resting on corbels on the walls.”
Steven Millhauser; The King in the Tree; Alfred A. Knopf; 2003.

“In older houses the brickwork of the chimney is corbelled inwards to form the throat to the flue.”
David Snell; Bricks & Mortar; The Daily Telegraph (London, UK); Jul 8, 2006.

See more usage examples of corbel in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: