Recent Examples on the WebAn alternate bid was accepted for North Carroll Middle, which McCabe said includes the installation of metal wall panels at the gables and increased the project’s cost by $59,400.—Thomas Goodwin Smith, Baltimore Sun, 19 Mar. 2024 In keeping with the style, the home has a brick facade with multiple overlapping gables of varying heights.—Lauren Beale, Forbes, 27 Mar. 2024 Orange City plays up its Dutch roots with decorative windmills, Dutch-style gables on storefronts, and an annual tulip festival in May.—Simon Montlake, The Christian Science Monitor, 28 Mar. 2024 Bargeboards decorated with oak leaves highlight the gable that rises above the grand entrance.—Lauren Beale, Forbes, 27 Mar. 2024 The slightly more than 8,400-square-foot limestone and brick Norman-Jacobian Revival-style mansion, with six bedrooms and five and a half baths, is embellished with Tudor-style chimneys, half-timbered gables, and mullioned windows.—Mark David, Robb Report, 22 Mar. 2024 Look closer, though, and the peaked thrust of that stage begins to suggest the prow of a ship, or perhaps the gable of a house — and is that a ribbon of sand that outlines it against the dark sea of the theater’s floor?—Trey Graham, Washington Post, 15 Mar. 2024 The resort appears as a dramatic neo-gothic castle with its turrets and gables perched on a hill overlooking Lake St Moritz.—Jim Dobson, Forbes, 1 Mar. 2024 Each new temple is a near-copy of the original Crown Heights mansion: three gables, a central bay window, reddish brick.—Adam Iscoe, The New Yorker, 22 Jan. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'gable.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
Middle English, borrowed from Anglo-French, going back to Latin gabulus, gabulum "gibbet" (borrowed from Celtic *gablo- "fork," whence Old Irish gabul "fork, gibbet, groin," Welsh gafl "fork, groin"), perhaps influenced in sense by northern Middle English and Scots gavel "triangular end of a building," borrowed from Old Norse gafl
Note:
The word gable, attested only in Anglo-French and the French of Normandy, is unlikely to be a loan from Old Norse, which would have resulted in *gavle. Old Norse gafl appears to correspond to Old High German gibil "gable," Middle Dutch and Middle Low German gevel, and Gothic gibla, though the divergence in vocalism is unexplained.
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