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(
ge
b(
)l) Forms: 
. Sc. and north. 4-9 gavel(l, 4-6 gavyll, 5 gavul, gawill, 4, 7 gavil(l. 
. 5 gabyl, gabul, 7-8 gabel(l, 4- gable. [The northern form gavel (still in Scotland pron. gev()l) is perh. directly a. ON. gafl masc., of the same meaning (Sw. gafvel, Da. gavl). The southern form gable might be a dial. variant of this (cf. nable for navel), but is more prob. a. OF. gable, jable masc., which is not found in other Rom. langs., and is prob. a. ON. gafl.
The corresponding words in the other Teut. langs. (OTeut types *ga
lâ, -ljâ) have the sense of ‘fork’: so OE. 
(e)afol, OS. gaflia (Gallée OS. Texts 157), MDu. gaffel(e (Du. gaffel), OHG. gabala (MHG., mod.G. gabel) fem.; app. cognate are OIr. gabul, gobul, Welsh gafl, fork (of the body, of a branch); the L. gabalus, app. meaning some kind of gallows or cross, is by some supposed to be lit. ‘fork’, and to have been adopted from Teut. or Celtic. In Goth. and WGer. the sense ‘gable’ is expressed by words that appear to be related by ablaut to the word for ‘fork’; Goth. gibla wk. masc. 
, ‘pinnacle’ of the temple, MDu. ghevel (Du. gevel), OHG. gibil (mod.G giebel) masc. With different sense, but agreeing in root, grade, and suffix, are OHG. gebal head, gibilla crown of the head, app. cognate with Gr. 
head (OAr. root *ghebh). 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 (see FORK n. 7).]
1. a. The vertical triangular piece of wall at the end of a ridged roof, from the level of the eaves to the summit.
1374 in
Hist. Dunelm. Scrip. tres App. p. cxli, Unum gavel capellæ super portam.
1379 Mem. Ripon (Surtees) III. 101 Emendand. in le Westgavell, 15
s. 3
d.
c1425 WYNTOUN Cron. VII. x. 275 That west gawill alsua In till hys tyme all gert he ma.
1531-2 Durham Househ. Bk. (Surtees) 176 Ac in fine aulæ super le gavylls.
1680 A. HAIG in J. Russell
Haigs xi. (1881) 309 Putting upe in the waster gavills, to the heads, 3 chimlies.
1703 T. N. City & C. Purchaser 148 Gavel, a word used by some, by which they mean the same as Gable.
1753 Scots Mag. Apr. 164/1 The gavel of..Reid's land..to be taken down and rebuilt.
1894 CROCKETT Lilac Sunbonnet 77 Sitting by the gable end (the ‘gavel’ as it was locally expressed).
c1386 CHAUCER Miller's T. 385 And whan thou..hast..broke an hole on heigh upon the gable Unto the gardin-ward, over the stable.
c1430 LYDG. Min. Poems 204 Wyde as a chirche that hath a gabyl.
1703 MOXON Mech. Exerc. 141 The principal Rafters, Purlins, Gables, &c. are also fram'd and set up.
1828 SCOTT F.M. Perth iii, Be at the lattice window on our east gable by the very peep of dawn.
1839 MISS MITFORD in L'Estrange
Life (1870) III. vii. 97 A porch and great gables with spread~eagles distinguish it.
1876 M. E. BRADDON J. Haggard's Dau. I. 5 With steep gables and curious abutments.
transf. 1896 SIR R. TEMPLE Story of my Life I. x. 212 The icy and snowy gables, towers, pinnacles of the mid~Himalayan range.
b. Any architectural member having the form of a gable, as a triangular canopy over a window or a doorway. See GABLE-END 2.
1850 PARKER Gloss. Archit. (ed. 5) 225
Gablets, small ornamented gables formed over tabernacles, niches, buttresses, etc.
2. The triangular-topped end wall of a building; a gable-end.
1362 LANGL. P. Pl. A.
III. 50 Woldustow Glase
e Gable and graue
erinne i nome.
c1440 Promp. Parv. 183/2 Gabyl, or gable, pykyd walle.
a1661 FULLER Worthies, Exeter I. (1662) 273 The Houses stand sidewaies backward into their Yards, and onely endwaies with their Gables towards the Street.
1806 Gazetteer Scotl. (ed. 2) 318 Towards the street, the ends or gables of the houses are placed.
1874 in
PARKER Goth. Archit. Gloss. 324.
3. Mech. (See quot.)
1888 Lockwood's Dict. Mech. Engin., Gable, the outer ends of the cranked portion of a crank shaft. Dressing this down square is termed cutting the gable.
4. attrib. and Comb., as gable-belfry, -coping, -perch, -roof (hence gable-roofed adj.), -wall; gable-shaped adj.; gable-wise adv.; gable-cresting = gable-coping; 
gable-fork = FORK n. 7; gable-topped a., topped by a gable, having a gable-shaped top; gable-window, a window in the gable or gable-end of a building.
1894 E. H. BARKER Summ. in Guyenne 67 A little old Gothic church with a *gable-belfry.
1860 G. E. STREET in
Archæol Cantiana III. 115 Surmounted by a high~pitched roof, finished with *gable-copings and crosses.
1886 WILLIS &
CLARK Cambridge III. 553 Elaborate *gable-cresting of the time of James I.
1371 Durh. Halm. Rolls (Surtees) 111 Reparabit unam grangiam de uno pare de siles et duobus *gauilforks.
1855 M. ARNOLD Balder Poems 1877 I. 151 And in Valhalla from his *gable-perch The golden crested cock began to crow.
1850 PARKER Gloss. Archit. (ed. 5) 254
note, A hipped-roof is quite distinct from a *gable~roof.
1742 B
ROWNE W
ILLIS Survey Cath. II. [III.] 334 The great Cross Isle or Tansept is *Gabell roof'd in a sloping Fashion.
1850 J. LEITCH Müller's Anc. Art §46 In the walls of Mycenæ and Larissa..are to be found *gable-shaped passages formed of blocks resting against each other.
1842 Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl. V. 81/1 Some..architects..give us a gable-topped and an elliptic bed-topped window alternately.
1903 LD. R. GOWER Rec. & Remin. 214 A small gable-topped building.
1923 R. G. COLLINGWOOD Roman Brit. 86 A gable-topped canopy.
1442 Building Accts. Thame Ch. in
Oxf. Archit. & Hist. Soc. Proc. (1860-4) N.S.I. 274 John Walschef 5 dayys for to take a down y *gabul wall.
1886 WILLIS &
CLARK Cambridge II. 162 The space between the screen and the gable wall of the Hall.
1447-8 H
EN. VI in Lyte
Eton Coll. (1875) 501 A grete *gable wyndowe of ix dayes.
1872 RUSKIN Fors Clav. xxi. 12 A branch or two of larch, set *gable-wise across them.
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