gavel

Meanings

Noun

• Rent.
• Usury; interest on money.
• An old Saxon and Welsh form of tenure by which an estate passed, on the holder's death, to all the sons equally; also called gavelkind.
• A wooden mallet, used by a courtroom judge, or by a committee chairman, struck against a sounding block to quieten those present, or by an auctioneer to accept the highest bid at auction.
• The legal system as a whole.
• A mason's setting maul.
• A small heap of grain, not tied up into a bundle.
• A gable.

Verb

• To divide or distribute according to the gavel system.
• To use a gavel.

Origin

• From Middle English gavel, from Old English gafol, from Proto-Germanic *gabulą, from Proto-Germanic *gebaną, equivalent to give + -el.
• Origin obscure. Perhaps alteration of cavel. More at cavel. Has also been linked to an Old Norse origin.
• Old French gavelle, French javelle, probably diminutive from Latin capulus ("handle"), from capere; or compare Welsh gafael ("hold, grasp"). Compare heave.