gable

英文词源

gable

gable: [14] The notion underlying gable is probably of ‘topping’ or ‘surmounting’, for it has been traced back by some to prehistoric Indo-European *ghebhalā, which also produced Greek kephalé ‘head’. Its immediate source was Old Norse gafl, which gave English the form gavel, subsequently remodelled on the basis of Old French gable (itself probably borrowed originally from the Old Norse word).
=> cephalic

gable (n.)

"end of a ridged roof cut off in a vertical plane, together with the wall from the level of the eaves to the apex," mid-14c., "a gable of a building; a facade," from Old French gable "facade, front, gable," from Old Norse gafl "gable, gable-end" (in north of England, the word probably is directly from Norse), according to Watkins, probably from Proto-Germanic *gablaz "top of a pitched roof" (cognates: Middle Dutch ghevel, Dutch gevel, Old High German gibil, German Giebel, Gothic gibla "gable"). This is traced to a PIE *ghebh-el- "head," which seems to have yielded words meaning both "fork" (such as Old English gafol, geafel, Old Saxon gafala, Dutch gaffel, Old High German gabala "pitchfork," German Gabel "fork;" Old Irish gabul "forked twig") and "head" (such as 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; gable-end.