gabalus

Latin

Etymology

From Gaulish gabalos, from Proto-Celtic *gablā (“fork, forked branch”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈɡa.ba.lus/, [ˈɡäbäɫ̪ʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈɡa.ba.lus/, [ˈɡäːbälus]

Noun

gabalus m (genitive gabalī); second declension

1. a gallows, gibbet
2. a cross (instrument of torture)
3. a fork (instrument of torture)

Declension

Second-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	gabalus	gabalī
Genitive	gabalī	gabalōrum
Dative	gabalō	gabalīs
Accusative	gabalum	gabalōs
Ablative	gabalō	gabalīs
Vocative	gabale	gabalī

Synonyms

• (gallows): arbor
• (cross): crux
• (fork): furca

Descendants

• Old French: *javel, javelot, javelline
  • Middle English:
    • English: javelin

References

• “gabalus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• gabalus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• gabalus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “gabalus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers