carrel
UK /ˈkæɹəl/ · US /ˈkɛɹəl/ noun, proper noun
Also a form of carol
Forms carrels carrell carrol carell
- noun (by extension) A partitioned space for reading or studying, often in a library. “He was busy writing his report in a small library carrel.”
- noun (obsolete) A type of fabric used in the 16th and 17th centuries.
- noun (obsolete) Synonym of quarrel (“a square-headed arrow”).
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
Etymology
A variant of carol (“small closet or enclosure”), from Middle English carole (“round dance with singing; group of people dancing and singing in a circle; circular thing; braid, chain (?); stall for study or writing; writing table; etc.”) (possibly referring to the fact that the item encloses or surrounds the person using it): see further at carol.
Probably borrowed from Middle French carrelé (“type of fabric”), probably from carrelé (“having checks”), an adjective use of the past participle of carreler (“to pave; to tile”) (modern French carreler), from carrel + -er (suffix forming infinitives of first-conjugation verbs). Carrel is a variant of carreau (“square; tile”), from Old French quarel (“square block of stone”), from Vulgar Latin *quadrellus, from Latin quadrus (“square”, adjective), probably from quattuor (“four”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwóres (“four”)) + -us (suffix forming adjectives).
Possibly a variant of quarrel.
Webster’s 1913
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “carrel”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details